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Date: 10/2/2019
GRANVILLE – For the 38th year the Granville Harvest Fair takes over the town for the three-day weekend and offers events for the whole family.
What initially began as a quilt showcase at the church in 1981 evolved into an event that offers vendors, live music and activities for children, said Linda Blakesy, one of the fair’s coordinators. She added that the fair now covers the town green, the library, the school, the church and the Noble and Cooley Drum Factory and Museum.
In addition to the site organizers, Blakesy said the fair is also helped by the Lions Club and the police and fire departments.
Blakesy said they are changing things up at the fair this year by adding a Harvest Hunt to get attendees to see everything the fair has to offer. Participants will go to each location at the fair and find a clue for a question they have to answer on their card. Blakesy said the participants will then be entered into a raffle for four prizes, including a $100 Big Y gift card, a Barnes and Noble gift card, and a year subscription to the Noble and Cooley Museum.
This year there are 120 different vendors coming to the event, according to Karen McLaughlin, one of the coordinators working at the school and the church for the fair. Blakesy added that many of the vendors remain the same but there are some new ones each year as well.
Throughout the day two busses will be running between the different areas about every 20 minutes but McLaughlin said attendees can also walk between the different locations. She added that while they are not part of the fair directly, some of the houses along the street between the town green and school offer some of their own activities as well.
Any money the different organizations running the fair makes goes directly back into the town but the vendors keep what they make selling their goods, McLaughlin said. “We want to keep our vendors profitable so they keep coming back each year,” she added.
McLaughlin said each department tries to avoid stepping on each other’s toes at the fair. “We don’t sell the same things as the other groups because we want to keep everybody’s efforts profitable,” she said.
The Noble and Cooley Museum will have a variety of activities throughout the weekend. Liz Smith, the coordinator in charge of the museum’s fair activities, said they are offering tours of the museum, a blacksmithing demonstration, live music, an old car showcase along with food and beer.
She said the tours will be $5 per adult and $3 for kids under 12.
“We are the only place at the fair that can sell alcohol since we are a private business. So each year we get our liquor license for the weekend and this year Westfield River Brewery will be our vendor,” Smith said.
Smith added that they are looking for volunteers to help run their booth in the town green, work as greeters at the museum and help work in the gift shop. Interested people can find more information online at the Noble and Cooley website.
The fair is Columbus Day Weekend and will be open Saturday and Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m.