Windy conditions and warmer than normal temperatures didn’t keep hundreds from attending Sunday’s fall festival at the Harriman-Nielsen Historic Farm on the west side of Hampton.
Nearly two dozen shop vendors were present for the festival with games, live music, food and hayrides highlighting the event.
Lowell Lange, who has been a board member for 20 years, spoke with RadioOnTheGo during the festival and how it has grown over the past two decades.
“You know, we try to add some new things every year and it’s just kind of gotten bigger and better and the crowds have gotten better. Every once in a while we come up with a new twist that requires some thought and some volunteerism on other people’s part. But it’s gotten bigger, you can tell by the parking and the shortage of the way we have to be organized in our parking that we’ve kind of grown to expect good crowds and they don’t disappoint us. It’s been really tremendous what the community does to support us.”
The Harriman-Nielsen Historic Farm has nine board members that oversee the upkeep of the grounds and one of the first board members of the historic farm, Berry Johnson, says this annual festival would not be possible without support from the community.
“This is our lone fundraiser that we have all year long and certainly an old building, an old house, all the buildings here. It takes some money to keep them in good repair and we’re pleased with what we have right now but we continually add to and improve the buildings. We have a lot of loyal, great supporters who are willing to bake a pie or two or three and bring them and so uh we say thank you to all those people who have contributed.”
Next year’s event is scheduled for Sunday, October 4th.
Photo of the Harriman-Nielsen historic house, which received a fresh coat of paint last year
