NASHVILLE — Music carried across the 325-acre campus of Hard Truth Distilling Co. on Saturday.
An inflatable basketball hoop stood near a cornhole setup, while an inflatable pumpkin marked the spot for face painting. Visitors walked between vendors with drinks in hand, stopping to grab pumpkins, sample bourbon barbecue pork and listen to music from the outdoor stage.
The third annual Harvest Fest, hosted by the distillery, brought the sights, sounds and tastes of fall to Brown County, attracting visitors there for a day that highlighted the small-town atmosphere and natural beauty of the area around Nashville.
Lara Hild-Doolan, general manager of tours and tastings at Hard Truth, said Brown County’s small-town atmosphere and natural beauty give visitors a chance to get away without traveling far. Their largest customer bases are Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Louisville.
“I think Brown County has a really nice blend of that small-town home feel, plus the beauty of our nature out here,” Hild-Doolan said. “And it’s just a nice getaway for people.”
She compared that feeling to the kind of small-town setting people might see in a Hallmark movie.
“Last year, I saw somebody describe Nashville in particular as a Hallmark movie town brought to life,” Hild-Doolan said. “And that is exactly what people are trying to escape to, that small town feel, without having to go too terribly far for it.”
For Sean Garrar, who moved to Indiana from California a few years ago, the atmosphere and the scenery are part of what keeps bringing him back to Brown County.
“The most fun is just Indiana vibes,” Garrar said. “The Midwest nice, the nice people. Good food. The workers here are amazing. And the music is great.”
For local vendors, the festival offered another opportunity to connect with visitors and promote their businesses.
Kristen Freune, a vendor at Harvest Fest, said festivals help businesses reach new customers.
“They help us get our word out and our following of people that like our merchandise,” Freune said.
Shannon Senior, owner of Shirt Station 317 in Greenwood, said the festival’s traffic can translate into more business.
“I mean, it just brings the traffic,” Senior said. “High traffic means high volume.”
Senior said the atmosphere also made the festival a positive experience for vendors.
“Everybody’s having a great time,” Senior said. “Everybody loves it here.”
Jordyn Wroblewski, Hard Truth’s public events manager, said this year the festival was more family-friendly because they had heard feedback that in previous years they didn’t have enough activities for children.
“We are a 21-and-up facility,” Wroblewski said. “But we also really want to involve the families because we are such a small, tight-knit community.”
But turnout was lower this year, which Wroblewski attributed to competition with five other events taking place in Brown County that weekend.
“Last year, we had a line out the door,” Wroblewski said. “Parking was miserable. So in my mind, I was prepping for such a large [event].”
Wroblewski said Hard Truth is considering different dates and times for future Harvest Fests to avoid competing with other events and wants to expand the number of vendors.
For Garrar, the festival is already part of what makes Brown County worth returning to.
“This place has so much to offer,” Garrar said.
Jack Davis is a student reporter with the Indiana Newsroom, a learning lab designed to give Indiana University students practical experience in community journalism and provide news coverage to areas where reliable local news is limited or nonexistent. It is funded by a grant from the Community Foundation of Bloomington & Monroe County and housed at The Media School in Bloomington.
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