NISLAND—Families and friends made the trek down an old, dusty gravel road to get to the place with rows and rows of beautiful, brightly colored flowers for the second annual Sunflower Festival on August 29, hosted by Joyful Blooms Flower Farm.
The weather was warm and the lines were long as the public made their way out to the festival. In its second year, the event exploded in size as an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 folks made their way out to Joyful Blooms to celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of fall.
Last year, around 500 visitors attended the festival, and that was basically what they were planning for this year. Instead, the festival drew several times that number. “Oh gosh, I knew it’d be bigger than last year but I didn’t think it’d be this big! Everyone loves sunflowers I guess,” said Sarah Schwede, owner.
Growing the festival was actually a long process with a lot of work and planning on the part of the Schwede family. Following the first Sunflower Festival last summer, Sarah shared plans she already had for the second Sunflower Festival and they included buying more land, adding a Sunflower Maze and a pumpkin patch.
That is exactly what they did. “So we bought this property—before we were just on our two acres, and we ended up buying this property last December. This was the goal from last year, and it happened,” explained Sarah. “I think our business has just grown in this last year, and the word has gotten out and everyone loves sunflowers still! We did a sunflower maze, so that’s totally different from last year. We have over 30 vendors this year—last year we had 10, and then this year we have about five food trucks, I believe.”
As you pulled up to the festival, you were greeted by cars and pickups lining the gravel road all the way up to the flower farm. As visitors entered the festival, parking helpers guided cars into designated parking areas. “I had parking blocked off over here, and maybe overflow parking here, but I never expected this kind of a crowd,” shared Sarah.
For a $5 admission fee, close to 40 vendors were lined up all around the property, giving eventgoers a lot to see and do. There was definitely something for everyone. Spread throughout the grounds were really well-thought-out stations to keep everyone comfortable and able to enjoy the day. There were water stations to fill flower vases and bug spray stations if the little critters decided to bother you.
In the shade trees, there was a Kid Zone right next to musician Sarah Carper, who entertained the crowd. Parents were able to set up lawn chairs or put out blankets and enjoy the music while their kids explored all of the fun outdoor activities. There was a corn-filled box, buckets of bubbles, face painting, play equipment and much more. Wandering Wolf Ranch provided baby goats for everyone to cuddle. Hayrides around the property were popular, as was taking photos in the sunflowers.
There was a roped-off area where flower lovers could cut their own blooms and create beautiful floral bouquets. It didn’t take long before all of the blooms were gone, so the hosts of the event opened the sunflower maze, a field full of sunflowers with a path winding around the inside. They gave the go-ahead to begin clipping those sunflowers so everyone who wanted a beautiful, bright yellow flower could have one. Everywhere you looked at the festival, there was someone walking around holding the giant yellow flowers. A splendid reminder of the great day.
A goal of Joyful Blooms is to have enough flowers for everyone to enjoy. This year’s Sunflower Festival had just that! “We didn’t run out of flowers! We’re opening up the maze here in about 15 minutes…and you can cut flowers—that way everyone gets flowers,” shared Sarah.
In October, plan to come back to Joyful Blooms for their Fall Festival. They will have their pumpkin patch ready for the public. Sarah said, “We have a two-acre pumpkin patch right now, we’ll do a fall festival…we’ll definitely do pumpkins, and I think each year it’ll just get bigger and bigger. But you know, more planning and trying to figure out how to have more flowers for everyone!”
A successful event couldn’t happen without the help of many people coming together to lend a hand. “It took definitely a team of people, you know the vendors—everyone coming out and driving quite a ways to get here, all the people and all my friends and family who just showed up when I needed it,” said Sarah. “I just hope everyone had a nice successful day!”
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