This year’s Homegrown Festival takes over South Broadway Street for its first-ever fall season debut. It is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Homegrown Festival is a free event that features live music and food trucks, as first started in Spring 2014. It will showcase a variety of local handmade goods, curated and refurbished vintage, original illustrations, prints, jewelry and accessories. There will be over 30 vendors from northwest Arkansas set up at the Twin Springs Park.
Director of downtown development and promotion for Main Street Siloam Springs, Lauren Huffman, said, “It’s a group of individuals that came up with the idea.”
“All of them are JBU alumni, with the exception of one.”
A couple of these creative minds behind the festival own businesses in downtown Siloam, including Tyler Caroll of TC Screen Printing, and Matt and Meghan Feyerabend of Feyerabend Photoartists.
Although it was “their idea and their vision,” Huffman hopes that Main Street Siloam Springs will take it over in the future. However, Huffman also ensured that “they’ll definitely still be a part of it since they kind of pioneered it.”
Main Street Siloam Springs is a “non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of historic downtown,” according to their website.
The fall 2015 festival will feature food vendors such as “pink House Alchemy,” who makes syrups, shrubs and bitters, and “Hill City Popcorn,” whose unique flavors vary from sweet, savory and spicy, from orange to jalapeno, along with multiple food trucks.
Stacy Hester, manager of the Silaom Springs Farmers Market, coordinates the market’s venue.
“We’re moving the whole Farmers Market to the festival that day,” Hester said.
Overall, Huffman described, “People from the community and the northwest can come and see what Siloam is, since many know it as the place you drive through on 412.” She continued, “We want to introduce people to Siloam Springs, and we wanted to showcase the people from Siloam Springs and the surrounding area.”
Therefore it is appropriate to have the local musical talent, “The Sons of Otis Malone,” booked to perform at the festival.
Hester said, “We like to be cooperative and promote the events. It’s about community.”