Southern Food Festival is coming to Batesville on Saturday

Robert Carius, left, former chairman of Main Street Batesville, and Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh welcome visitors to the 2018 Southern Food Festival, sponsored by Main Street Batesville. This year’s festivities will take place Saturday, starting at 8 a.m.
Robert Carius, left, former chairman of Main Street Batesville, and Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh welcome visitors to the 2018 Southern Food Festival, sponsored by Main Street Batesville. This year’s festivities will take place Saturday, starting at 8 a.m.

— The Southern Food Festival, sponsored by Main Street Batesville, is adding new activities this year.

The festival, which is in its third year, will take place Saturday. It started as a celebration to the end of the downtown revitalization streetscape process.

A showing of The Goonies will start at 8:30 p.m. at Pocket Park. Chicken Alley, a chicken dinner with all the trimmings, will be held from 6-8 p.m. The cost is $10 per plate.

“It will be a full day,” said Mandi Curtwright, Main Street Batesville executive director. “In the past, it’s concluded at 2 p.m. It’s grown each year, and people come downtown and want to stay, which is a great thing. We thought by adding in the movie when it’s a little bit cooler and the dinner, people would come down, and during their break, they could shop and cool off and be in and out throughout the day.”

The festival is set to start at 8 a.m. with the opening of the farmers market, which will be open until noon. Other vendors will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Food sampling will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“As of today, we have 12 vendors signed up,” Curtwright said. “I know there will be more before the event date rolls around.”

As part of the food sampling, people may buy a punch card for $10, which allows five punches at various food vendors during the event.

“This allows you to go around and sample all the Southern-style dishes that will be served at the festival,” Curtwright said.

Punch cards can be purchased at White River Now, ARCare, the Melba Theater, the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce or online at www.mainstreetbatesville.org.

Two blocks on Main Street will be closed for the festival: from Third to Broad streets and from Broad to North Central streets. Broad Street will remain open.

Other new highlights this year include a water zone for kids, called Downtown Drizzle, and Big Poppa Bubble.

“Downtown Drizzle will be a water play area on the lower block of Main Street and will include a large water slide and a slip-n-slide and other water games,” Curtwright said.

Big Poppa Bubble will also appear at the festival.

“I know he’s been at Toad Suck Daze and some other festivals,” Curtwright said. “He creates these gigantic bubbles of his own concoction. It’s kind of mesmerizing to watch.”

Also, Curtwright said, more music has been requested.

“We received feedback that people wanted more music,” she said. “We’ve booked a lot of local artists to be playing in the street.”

Musical acts already scheduled to appear include Nick Fudge, Mike Foster, Ed Casper, Jordan Brock and the Natural Disasters, who are scheduled from 5-7 p.m. at the Food Lot.

Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh said events like the Southern Food Festival are good for his city’s economy.

“Any time Main Street has any type of festival or event, it stimulates our economy,” he said. “We’ve hosted high school ball tournaments at Southside. We had 3,000 people in our community, and the festivals do the same thing. It might not be as many folks, but with the new, revitalized Main Street, people are just showing up a lot of times to see what Batesville has.

“We’ve made so many improvements in just the past four years. These festivals are the icing on the cake for us.”

For Curtwright, this is not her first Southern Food Festival, but it is her first as executive director. She replaced Shannon Haney in July 2018.

“I watched, but I was a vendor,” Curtwright said. “I’m co-owner of the Melba Theater, and we had a booth. I attended both years, but on the other side. I was able to see the crowd and people walking from one side of the street to the other. It’s grown each year. I’ve always enjoyed being able to participate. Obviously, planning it is a whole different side of things.”

Curtwright said she’s received good feedback on Facebook for the event.

“The community really enjoys it,” she said. “We put it on Facebook, and we have a Facebook event created. The buzz on Facebook is really encouraging. We’ve got some people saying they are traveling from a couple of hours away.”

The festival is presented by Peco Foods. Sponsors include Citizens Bank, Autry’s White River Furniture, the Fringe Salon, Southern Bank, Centennial Bank and the Bank of Cave City.

For more information, visit www.mainstreetbatesville.org.

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