FLUSHING, MI — Downtown Flushing was filled with vendors, food and family-friendly activities Saturday for its annual Harvest Festival.
The festival, hosted by the Flushing Chamber of Commerce, was from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm on October 1st. The event saw Flushing’s Main Street blocked off for the festivities with events taking place in a small plaza outside the Edward Jones Building, 121 E. Main St.
“This is something that Flushing really looks forward to every year,” said Lesly Foreman, service coordinator for the Flushing Chamber of Commerce. “It’s that one-day event that really brings everyone together.”
This year’s Main Street events included pie-eating and baking contests, a beard and mullet contest, a scarecrow decorating contest and a chili cook-off.
Performances by local groups, such as the Flushing Youth Tackle Football Program cheerleading squads, took place throughout the day on downtown Main Street. Goat Yoga, a yoga studio that teaches classes with a set of Nigerian pygmy goats, had a small pen of their goats that visitors could pet and interact with.
A major guest star at this year’s festival was Boris, a goat-sheep who has become famous in Flushing after escaping and running loose in downtown Flushing.
“Everybody here has a story,” Foreman said. “We’re a small hometown and we love to support all of these people. Chamber members or not, we still love to support all of our businesses.”
The festival has been held in Flushing for over 25 years. In recent years, the Harvest Festival has grown to include a small area in Riverview Park with food trucks and inflatable slides brought to the festival by Westside Church.
“We just pick events that are already in Flushing and try to join those things,” said Jason Bradow, associate pastor at Westside Church. “The bounce houses and food trucks draw a good crowd and give us a chance to mingle with them.”
