Harvest Fest set for Village Green Shopping Center Sunday

With the temperatures cooling, Shop Farragut, also known as Farragut Business Alliance, is preparing for its 3rd Annual HarvestFest.

This year’s event will take place from 2 to 6 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 22, in Village Green Shopping Center along Kingston Pike. It is free and open to the public.

“Sunday afternoon, come after church, have some fun, get some food, have some drinks, see some funny costumes, do a little trick-or-treating — just sounds like fun,” Shop Farragut executive director Steve Krempasky said.

“Last year, it rained,” he noted. However, “we still had about 600 people or so.”

This year, “I’ll think we’ll easily get 1,200, 1,500 people,” Krempasky said.

There will be live music, and the “big thing, of course, is our Halloween costume contest,” Krempasky said. “We’re working on the judges right now — getting some local celebrities to do that.”

While Shop Farragut has held the event for three years, “this is really only the second time we’ve done the contest,” he said. “We have a lot of people already talking about coming back.

“We had 70 entries last year,” Krempasky said. “Who knows, we may end up with 100 entries.”

The entertainment begins at 2 p.m. with Emi Sunshine, a local favorite national recording artist from Madisonville.

“She’s got a big Knoxville following,” Krempasky said. “she’ll also have a booth of her own. She does arts and crafts and other things.”

Around 3:30 to 3:45 p.m., “We’ll get everyone assembled for the costume contest,” he said. “This year, we’re going to have a little runway off the stage so (contestants) can parade their costumes properly.

“Local businesses will have contributed to the prize packages,” Krempasky added. “... We have six different categories of costumes — everything from pet to a group of people.”

Currently, Shop Farragut is accepting sponsors and vendors for the festival. “We hope to have about 50 vendors,” he said. “They will be giving away candy. It will be a trick-or-treat-type thing for the kids.”

Businesses can set up a vendor booth by e-mailing shopfarragut@gmail.com

After the costume contest, another local band, Mighty Blue, will close out the afternoon with its performance.