Harvest Homecoming offers festive activities
By McKenna Click
This year marks the 45th annual Harvest Homecoming festival that takes place in downtown New Albany. This year a few things will be different about the festival, starting with the theme, which is “Harvest Goes Hollywood.” Also, for the first time students will be out of school for a full week during the festival.
The festivities will kick off with opening ceremonies tomorrow at Seventh and Spring Street, starting at 10:30 a.m. with “64 West” as musical entertainment. After opening ceremonies, at noon the Harvest Homecoming Parade will start at New Albany High School, which will then head south on Vincennes Street to Spring Street turning west to Bank Street and finally end at Bank and Elm Streets.
On Sunday, Oct. 7, Harvest Homecoming Idol open auditions will be held at Jimmy’s Music Center, located at 123 East Market Street. Auditions start at 2:30 p.m. and are open to anyone ages 16-30; contestants must bring proof of ID with them. There will be a $15 entry fee, and the top 15 chosen will perform live for the festival on Oct. 12. Once they have performed live, the top five will advance on and perform live on Oct. 13.
Located at the corner of Market and State on the Main Source stage, the first annual Harvest Homecoming Corn Hole Tournament. There are two categories individuals have the option of entering, the kids tournament or the adult tournament. Both categories will have prizes awarded to first, second, and third place teams
The kids’ tournament is for the people ages 10-17. It will be a single elimination and will have a $10 entry fee per team to pay.
The adult tournament is for anyone ages 18 and older. It will be a double elimination and has a $25 dollar entry fee per team to play.
Deadline for both categories to enter is tomorrow, Oct. 6. Visit harvesthomecoming.com or contact Melissa Atkins at (502) 930-8882 for information and registration forms.
On Sunday, Oct.13, no registration form will be required but a $15 admission fee per car will be required at the Harvest Homecoming open car show, located at the New Albany Riverfront. The show will start at 9 a.m. and will last until 1 p.m. Harvesthomecoming.com, where all the information about the festival was found, welcomes, “any type of stock, classic, show or race car, antique vehicles, trucks, motorcycles, any model, any year.” Various awards will be presented at 3:30.
The crafts/food booths and farmers market will run Thursday, Oct.11 from noon-9 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 12 from 9 a.m.-10 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 13 from 9am-10 p.m.; and Sunday, Oct. 14 noon-5 p.m. While checking out the booths, look for FC’s banana booth, sponsored by Student Council.
Student Council raises money through banana booth
By Derek Hanke
Hitting closer to home, the FC Banana Booth, run by Student Council sponsor and English teacher Tiffany Stansbury, will be operating at Harvest Homecoming from Wednesday to Sunday.
Stansbury finds satisfaction in running the booth. Unique to the banana booth activity is the opportunity to work with students outside of school.
“I enjoy being able to work alongside students. It’s a fun four days but long at the same time. It’s stressful but you get to meet a lot of new people.”
Another aspect of the booth that Stansbury finds interesting is the tradition behind it.
“It’s really neat because the school has had the Banana Booth for 30 years,” she said. “Before the booth was a trailer, it was wooden and had to be assembled at Harvest itself. Some people come every year just to get frozen bananas.”
Stansbury enjoys two main things when running the booth.
“Spending four days alongside students is a lot of fun. Also, people watching is enjoyable.”
The booth benefits both the school and the Student Council.
“We raise about two thousand dollars, generating all the Student Council funds for the year. We put the money towards school events like the Dance Marathon,” said Stansbury.
Student council members are all required to work at the booth, providing staff for the event.
“We’re all required to work the booth but even if we weren’t I’d probably still work it anyways,” said senior Hannah Merk.
Merk is working at the Banana Booth for her second time this year. She likes working at Harvest partially because of the climate.
“I love Harvest Homecoming. Fall is my favorite time of the year,” said Merk.
If the weather is right, Merk expects a large turnout for Harvest with an increased amount of families due to FC having Friday off.
Merk isn’t worried about being too busy because the banana preparing process makes their sales much easier. Merk expects there to be around a thousand bananas sold.
“We have a banana prep day where we prepare and freeze the bananas so all we have to do when someone orders is dip them in chocolate,” said Merk.
Merk enjoys working with classmates and socializing with customers.
“I love interacting with buyers and working with the other members of Student Council. Working the Banana Booth helps us bond because we have to work together.” she said.
Merk says there is a special way that the booth draws in customers.
“We have a person in a banana costume every shift that dances and draws in customers.” said Merk.
Merk encourages every FC student to visit the Banana Booth.
“If you’re a student at FC, there’s a good chance you’ll see someone you know working there and it’s a lot of fun.”
