On October 7th, the Historic Downtown Liberty Farmers’ Market had its 2nd Annual Pumpkin Festival. This festival celebrates the beginning of fall in a lively way, with vendors, food, activities, raffles, and live music. This festival, there were 50 vendors, some being additional seasonally themed vendors. Many special guests attended the festival, such as The Liberty Community Health Action Team, Jazzercise, The Heart of Magic, and Matthew Stewart.
This festival is planned by Erin Erdman, the Historic Downtown Liberty Inc. Farmers’ Market Manager. It’s her 2nd year of being the Market Manager. As manager, she runs the Info Booth, plans events, handles vendor applications , designs maps and handouts, and posts on the HDLI Farmers’ Market Facebook page.
“Planning the Pumpkin Festival is one of my favorite parts of the market season! Fall is such a special time on the Historic Downtown Liberty Square and I love seeing it decorated with Fall decor and everything pumpkin!”, Erdman said.
There are many kinds of vendors at the Farmers’ Market, such as produce, meats, crafts, baked goods, and clothing. Along with the normal vendors, there were many seasonal ones.
“At our Pumpkin Festival we host our regular Farmers’ Market vendors, plus some special guest pop-up vendors that coordinate with our pumpkin theme. They sell either pumpkin food products, pumpkin/Fall craft items or other seasonally appropriate things to make our festival even more special. Of course we have multiple vendors with a variety of outdoor decorative items as well, such as: pumpkins, hay bales, decorative corn, gourds and more! Applications are accepted on a first come, first served basis and we encourage anyone interested to apply as soon as possible, as space is limited.”, Erdman said.
This year, there was a change to who could apply for a space at the Pumpkin Festival. This change allowed many new corporations to be there! Matthew Stewart, a morning anchor/reporter of FOX 4 Kansas City held a book signing for his new book Unique Eats and Eateries of Kansas City, which shares the unique and enjoyable restaurants of the area. You can purchase this book and others at his website here. “This season we decided to allow a limited number of corporate booths to participate in the festival for an additional fee. We made sure that they were still supporting the theme of shopping local/working local. We also added a fun Pumpkin Queen from The Heart of Magic to the festival event calendar and she was very popular! We are excited to have her back again next season!”, Erdman said.
The HDLI Farmer’s Market has always been a great way to involve the community. The Pumpkin Festival continues this in many ways. “We host local businesses that are owned by local families. The money spent with them stays right in our community, versus shopping in a big box store that benefits large corporations. We had our final Wellness Weekend during our Pumpkin Festival and handed out $500 worth of free tokens to the community, free recipe cards, and had free mini pumpkin painting at the Little Sprouts corner, all courtesy of The Liberty Community Health Action Team. Jazzercise hosted a free class on the Courthouse steps. Liberty Public Hospital gave free blood glucose checks and blood sugar readings, to help keep the community healthy. By hosting the Pumpkin Festival, it also encouraged customers to visit the other stores, museums, and restaurants around the Liberty Square, therefore benefiting those local businesses as well.”, Erdman said.
