Harvest Moon Fest to Bring Hands-On Activities, Artist Demonstrations and Fall Fun

When a group of volunteers set out last year to host a fall festival in the Flathead dedicated to the changing of the seasons, the making of things, and the importance of creative community, they weren’t quite sure what to expect.

Called Harvest Moon Fest, the event was intended to bring people together but also to function as a fundraiser for The Making Place, whose founders envisioned a nonprofit community maker space to give local artists and creatives a place where they could make things, teach things, and learn from each other.

Harvest Moon Fest’s first year included a hands-on screen printing station, games, ceramics and metalworking demonstrations, an open mic, cider making, a raffle, and a range of different artist and vendor booths for attendees to browse.

Looking back at the inaugural 2024 festival, organizers described the turnout eliciting feelings of surprise, delight and gratification, with an estimated 400 to 500 attendees coming out over the course of the day.

“I think it showed that want for community and a creative space in the Flathead,” Ellen Mering, a local farmer who is both a board member and treasurer for The Making Place, said.

“Last year was a huge success, and we were just blown away by the community aspect of it and how people found us because we were so new,” according to The Making Place events coordinator Amy Gwartney.  

In the months since last year’s festival, The Making Place has made major progress, including with the opening of a physical space above Uptown Hearth in Columbia Falls at the beginning of June. All told, The Making Place went from an idea to a reality in the span of about one-and-a-half years.

The space above Uptown Hearth houses a tool library, and stations set up with equipment for photography, textile making, fine tooling, print making, 3D printing, dying, mold making, painting and drawing. Alongside those offerings, The Making Place in a recent impact report shared that it has provided more than 205 hours of free programing across Columbia Falls, Kalispell and Whitefish.

Sienna Broglie, who serves as the vice president of The Making Place’s board, said that the strong reception last year convinced organizers to expand Harvest Moon Fest’s budget in its second year, and hopefully in the process raise even more money and garner more support for The Making Place, which is run by volunteers. With that expansion has come some alterations to the festival, even as many of the core components remain the same. The all-day festival is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 4 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 700 Mooring Road in Columbia Falls.

This year’s festival will have an entry fee, with $10 for general admission, and $15 for early-bird special admission tickets. The special-admission tickets, which will run $20 if purchased at the gate for this year’s festival, come with a free drink voucher and a craft pass. Kids ages 12 and under get into the festival free, as do members of The Making Place. Discounted memberships will also be available for purchase at the festival.

The craft pass is a new component to the festival, which gives people a chance to participate in hands-on workshops that will be taking place throughout the day, with a limit of 40 people per activity. This year’s craft pass workshops include flower crown weaving, sun printing, mullein torch making and a fire cider making demonstration.

According to Gwartney, the events coordinator, the hands-on aspect of last year’s festival generated good feedback from attendees, with some saying that it offered a unique experience. That led the festival’s organizers to expand those types of offerings this time around.

Other festival offerings this year include craft vendors, games, live artist demos, free kids crafts, a pie raffle (yes, it’s what it sounds like), Tarot card readings, a fall photo booth, a cider press and live illustrations.

This year’s festival will also have a series of local musicians playing in lieu of last year’s open mic and DJ setup. Musical acts include Two Man Twin Band, Colton Sea, Casey Garland, Mossy Rock and Izzy Ray. Broglie said that organizers want to empower artists, and part of realizing that festival musicians are fairly compensated. It’s one of the reasons this year’s festival has a ticketed entry.

Food and beverage offerings have also been expanded, with a selection of non-alcoholic drink options, as well as beer available courtesy of Jeremiah Johnson Brewing and wine from Pack Mule Liquor. Food vendors will include Fire and Dough, which specializes in Neapolitan pizza, and Region Sauvage, which specializes in live fire cooking.

Free kids crafts are also planned, including pumpkin painting and flower garland making with dried flowers, and watercolor leaf painting, which will give kids a chance to learn how to shade using the stippling technique which relies on small dots of color. The pumpkins are being supplied courtesy of the Falls Farm Co-Op, which is a small farming co-op in Columbia Falls. As part of this year’s festival, the Falls Farm Co-Op will also have a booth alongside the roughly 20 local artist vendors.

“I think what we found with The Making Place is there is a lot of overlap between people that are growers and people that make art,” Mering said. “There’s people in The Making Place that do natural dyes or arrange flowers or make painting pigments out of plants. So I think that’s where the overlap comes in. And we thought for a harvest festival, it would be fun this year to kind of bring in the farm booth, to have that sort of harvest feel for Harvest Moon this year.”

One thing that isn’t changing is the festival venue, which will once again be at the Harvest Moon Homestead. Located off Mooring Road between Kalispell and Columbia Falls, Harvest Moon Homestead is the residence of events coordinator and natural dye artist Gwartney and ceramicist Cooper Jeppesen, who sells his work through his business Hearth Ceramics.

There will be parking attendants this year, and a limited number of ADA-compliant parking spaces because the festival property is located atop an incline. Gwartney asked that people be aware of people coming in and out of the festival because of the tight nature of some of the parking arrangements. She also recommended that people purchase tickets online in advance.

For more information about the festival, go to https://www.harvestmoonfest.org/.