The Farmers Fall Festival is back and better than ever. With the leaves changing colors and the air getting chillier, the summer harvest is coming to an end and the autumn harvest is just beginning. This calls for a celebration. This Saturday, the Cary Farmers Market is having their Annual festival that showcases their fresh crops, fall cheer and community spirit. The streets in front of the Cary Arts Center will transform as over 100 vendors line up to offer homemade crafts, food and produce. Around the Downtown park, visitors can hear live local bands play, take part in autumn-inspired arts and crafts, play fun games and enter a pie-eating contest.
This year, the festival will be extra special. Brett Pinsent, a four-year manager of the Cary Farmers Market and key contributor to this festival, said, “This year, we are integrating the entire festival into the footprint of the park, as well as our normal weekly space on Park St.” Downtown Cary park, with its expansive children’s playground (the children’s village), large stage, green fields and comfortable seating, is the perfect venue. In the park’s fields, there will be DIY activities, as well as outdoor games like cornhole, face painting, and fairy hair braiding. On the stage, you can enjoy two local bands, Blue Sky Crying and Purebred Mutts, and at 12 pm, feast your eyes(or your taste buds) on the pie-eating competition, courtesy of Blue Moon Bakery. However, the main highlights are the small, locally based vendors, mainly local small businesses and farmers. This year, Pinsent explained how they had double the number of vendors applying for a stand, so each vendor has been hand-picked for the “best balance of vendors offering unique items in each category.” Some of these artisan vendors include Boxcarr Handmade Cheese, Lutra Cafe and Bakery, Lindsays Paperworks and Pflora Metal Arts.
This was no easy feat to set up, though. Without the help of many organizers, planners and volunteers, this festival couldn’t have happened. Pinsent wanted to make this event “something you would battle traffic, parking, and crowds” for. He shares, “If you are creating the best possible event for the customer, then the result is the best possible event for the vendor as well. The goal in the end is that both your customers and vendors can’t wait to come back again next year.” He and many others gave it their all with gathering the sponsors and volunteers, marketing and social media, getting inspections of kitchens and having good communication with all the vendors. Pinsent alone said he had “thousands of emails and phone calls” and has spent days planning and measuring to make sure things fit. All of it is worth it as this festival is essential for the longevity of the Cary Farmers Market.
The Cary Farmers Market is a non-profit organization, and the funds from this festival help the market operate to set up every Saturday. The costs of staffing, materials, transportation and inspections add up. Pinsent says that the market likes to keep their booth fees very affordable. “In order to run the market, we don’t really make much money from our vendors, but from sponsors, grants, and donations,” he shared. The profit also goes to the Farmers Market social programs aimed at feeding the people of Cary. Just last year, between the three programs, Pinsent gave out over $28,000. “The festival allows us to raise the money we need in order to help cover all those costs associated with the market for the rest of the year,” he shared.
This festival is also worth it for the joy it brings to people. You can see the people who make up your community, all gathered around to celebrate the fall season. Bring your friends and family and come make memories in the backdrop of this year’s Farmers Fall Festival.
