Enfield Harvest Festival returns in 2021

On Sept. 18, the town of Enfield will hold its 45th annual Harvest Festival at the Enfield Community Center from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., continuing a decadeslong tradition that was only interrupted by the pandemic.

The Harvest Festival was first established in October 1975 to celebrate the accomplishments of the children in Enfield’s summer camps and after-school program.

A concession stand offers food such as hot dogs, chili dogs and more, while a chicken barbecue sells chicken dinners, chicken halves and vegetarian meals. Other attractions include live entertainment, a silent auction, information booths, a cake wheel and a bake sale, among others.

Cortney Bailey, president of the Enfield Community Council, the organization responsible for organizing the Harvest Festival, described the festival as a way to bring people together.

“It gives them a break from the bustle of getting back to school started, and the end of summer, and it’s something that they can leisurely walk about in and enjoy the vendors, and seeing what the kids have been up to in the program, and listen to a little live music and have some chicken barbecue, and just relax from the stress of starting school,” Bailey said.

When it comes to choosing a date, the Harvest Festival has other considerations, such as the weather, the start of school and not conflicting with other festivals or football games.

“We try to find that happy medium between rain, drizzly cold and not competing with the Apple Festival downtown,” Bailey said.

According to Bailey, the events and other features of the Harvest Festival have not changed much over the years, save for ending the parade and ping pong drop. The parade ended with the cancellation of the Firemen’s Festival many years ago, while the ping pong drop was canceled after the 2019 festival due to lack of space at the Community Center as well as the organizers being unable to find a pilot.

This year, the organizers are working on a scavenger hunt, as well as a celebration to commemorate the town’s 200th anniversary.

The site of the festival alternated between the old firehouse, the Enfield Grange and the school in the past, depending on which one had the space available for the event, but Bailey hopes that the Enfield Community Center will be a permanent setting for the festival.

Bailey said that holding the festival in a building the Enfield Community Council owns will be much more convenient in some ways, as they can begin preparations on the Wednesday or Thursday before the festival, which is always held on a Saturday. When the festival was held at the school, Bailey and other organizers had to wait until school let out the day before the festival before they could begin preparing.

“There have been years that we literally started at 2:30 Friday and I would get home at 10:30, 11:00 at night, and then be back up there at 8:00 in the morning to finish setting up,” Bailey said.

According to Bailey, approximately 600 to 700 people usually attend each Harvest Festival, making it significantly larger than Enfield’s Country Fair, which is held the day before Mother’s Day and usually brings in 250 to 300 people.

She also described the Harvest Festival as more work than the Country Fair.

“As much as we try to make sure that the volunteers get to enjoy the Harvest Festival, it’s so much work that most of the time, we’re not getting to actually go see what’s going on,” Bailey said.

Last year was the first year without a Harvest Festival, and Bailey described the motivation behind the decision.

“By the time we hit June, we knew that [the Harvest Festival] was not an option,” she said. “It wasn’t safe for the public to be out and about. We didn’t have a vaccine. We didn’t know for sure what we were dealing with; nobody really did, other than it was dangerous.”

After the cancellation of the Harvest Festival and the Country Fair, Bailey and the rest of the Enfield Community Council shifted their energy to how best to help area youth. This task was made more difficult by much of the town lacking reliable internet access, but Bailey stressed the importance of showing empathy.

“We did what we could to mitigate the circumstances of isolation and tried to [tell] our kids, ‘OK, we know this is tough. It’s tough on you; it might be even tougher on you than it is on us. So, what can we do help you?’” she said.

While Enfield was able to hold the Country Fair this year, Bailey is closely monitoring the current situation with COVID-19, especially the Delta variant. She is willing to primarily hold the event outside and comply with all safety guidelines. In a worst-case scenario, she is prepared to cancel the Harvest Festival if necessary and offer an alternative event, such as a drive-thru chicken barbecue.

“I won’t put lives at risk because I want to have a Harvest Festival,” Bailey said.

Despite this, Bailey hopes that the festival can be held, giving Enfield residents a chance to come together and enjoy themselves in their community.

“I’d like to see people come out and just reconnect,” Bailey said. “I think that’s really important for all of us, especially our teens, who have faced a year of isolation, and that’s what we’re about, is making our community better.”

In Brief:

Enfield Town Board to meet tonight

Enfield’s Town Board will hold a meeting Sept. 8 at 6:30 p.m., including a public hearing to discuss a proposed local law to override the tax levy limit. The meeting will be held in person at the Enfield Town Courthouse at 182 Enfield Main Rd. in Ithaca, as well as on Zoom.

For more information, as well as the Zoom link, please visit the Enfield town website at townofenfield.org.