The Downtown Spring Festival is making its debut April 29 in Seymour.
The event will take place from 4 to 8 p.m. on Second Street from the Chestnut Street traffic light to the railroad next to This Old Guitar Music Store, so that section of the street will be closing early so vendors can start setting up at 2 p.m.
The event is being organized by Jenna Martinez, owner of The Magic of Books Bookstore, and Tonya Pacey, owner of The Pacey Apothecary in Seymour.
Pacey said she is excited to see everyone again and bring them together.
“I think this will be very successful for everyone downtown,” she said. “We love bringing people together to create community.”
Pacey said she personally feels like with the last few years, it’s important to bring people together to smile and have fun together.
“There will be close to 20 vendors. Plus, Lola’s Modern Kitchen food truck will be slinging tacos, burritos, nachos and more with vegan and vegetarian options again,” she said. “But this time, they’ll be in their brand-new food trailer, and Kona Ice will be there, too, with desserts for the kids.”
Vendors include Pudding Overlord, Backroad Unique, Celeste Art Co., Pure Romance by Kimberly, Jane Elizabeth 3D Art, Magical Faces by Britt, The Crafty Hobbit, OptiMystic Tarot, Missy Lu’s Sugar Shack, Kristen’s Homemade Crafts, Codi’s Small-Town Sweets, Lolly’s Pops, Carefree Crochet, Pro-Arts Sinology, The Front Porch, Fortune Favors the Brave, Author Ashley Greathouse, Serenity’s Closet and Poplar Street Melts.
Pacey will be booking the music and food and placing vendors in their spots for the event.
“We’re planning to have a special kids zone, and we’re going to have activities for them, like sidewalk chalk, cornhole, face painting and more,” she said.
The musical entertainment will kick off at 4 p.m. with Seymour’s Steve Deweese followed by Harvey Adams from 5 to 6 p.m. Then a trio with frontman Sean Jennings of Super Trucker will close out the festivities from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Super Trucker is an Indianapolis-based cosmic country power trio consisting of veteran musicians. Besides Jennings, who is a Seymour native, the other members are Amos Burch and Nathan Matlack.
The band stays on the country side of such bands as the Grateful Dead, The Band, Tom Petty and more. Their motto is “less honkin, more tonkin.”
Pacey said those who plan on attending the festival will be able to find plenty of fun, vendors, delicious food, fun for the kids and live entertainment. Several downtown businesses also will be open.
“The apothecary will be open during the event, and we will have my sister, Rachel Doerflien, a new face to The Apothecary, with Jasmine Sluder and myself slinging adult beverages inside,” she said.
During normal hours, the apothecary offers Reiki healing, Tarot readings, Apothekaraoke, Mommy and Me classes 10 to 11 a.m. every Wednesday, LGBTQIA group support and free trauma release therapy for victims of domestic violence.
“We sell a variety of handmade crafts from local artists,” Pacey said. “We have jewelry, candles, macramé, crochet art, journals, vintage and boho clothing and so much more.”
The shop has a free clothes rack out front for whoever might need something from it.
”We get donations daily and keep it full as fast as we can,” Pacey said. “It has been so wonderful.”
The festival will coincide with Independent Bookstore Day, a national one-day event held the last Saturday in April to celebrate independent bookstores across the country.
Bookstore owner Martinez said she is still working on the plans for Independent Bookstore Day.
“We’ll probably do what we’ve done in the past and give some things away, have snacks to hand out and then we hope to have the scavenger hunt again because the kids seem to love that,” she said.
Martinez said they started having the downtown events because there aren’t many fun family-friendly things to do in Seymour.
“It’s also about getting people downtown to see all the cool stuff we have” she said. “A lot of people don’t even know we exist, so this is is good for all of downtown.”
Jason and Stacy Harmon from 1852 Cafe and Megan Kessner of Rural Witch Co. are going to be helping with the event, too, but more volunteers are needed.
Kessner said she thinks the event will give people a lot more sense of community since it’s small and local.
As for festival parking, several parking lots are located in downtown Seymour. Some of the most popular ones are at the intersection of Walnut Street and St. Louis Ave., Walnut and Fourth Street (behind the post office) and a couple more are on Indianapolis Avenue along the railroad tracks near This Old Guitar.
The event is free to the public. Anyone who would like information about the festival or would like to volunteer should send an email to [email protected].