BUCKHANNON — Moon Flower, a cannabis products business based in Buckhannon, is introducing a new fall festival to Main Street this October, featuring a chili cook-off, live music and new Moon Flower products.
The Moon Flower Harvest Festival will take place on Buckhannon’s Main Street, in front of the Moon Flower storefront, on Saturday, Oct. 18 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The chili cook-off will be held from noon to 2 p.m.
“The chili cook-off portion of the event will require a ticket; they’re $10, and those are available online right now,” Macie Queen, co-owner of Moon Flower, said. “The chili cook-off is going to be a Buckhannon restaurant showdown, so restaurants are going to make a chili and submit that as an entry. People who get tickets will be able to go and sample everyone’s chili and then vote for their favorite.”
The event will have three judges, and the awards will include People’s Choice, Judges’ Choice and Moon Flower’s Choice.
“The People’s Choice winner will win $250, Judges’ Choice is also $250 and then Moon Flower’s Choice is going to get a basket of Moon Flower goods and a gift card,” Queen said. “So far, the restaurants competing are the Whistle Stop, Stone Tower, Firehouse, Dawgs, Kathy’s Diner, Hillbilly Grill, Peggy’s Home Cooking, the Kanawha Lounge, Country Time Cooking, Bucks Diner and Traveling Dawgz.”
The Harvest Festival will also include food trucks, West Virginia artisans and live music.
“There will be two food trucks, Imposter Pizza and South Texas Barbecue — those are going to be in the lot across from us, owned by Travis Foster — and the chili cook-off will be in that lot as well,” Queen said. “We’re going to have three different sets of live music, and those will just be all throughout the day. It’s a free event, so you won’t need a ticket to attend the actual Harvest Festival.”
The portion of Main Street in front of Moon Flower will be closed to traffic for the event, making it easier to get from Moon Flower to the lot across the street.
“We are shutting off this section of Main Street, so it’s going to be even bigger and better than our 420 Festival. We’re going to have around 20 different West Virginia artisans, crafts, holistic-type stuff, and they will all be on Main Street,” Queen said. “We’re also going to have a couple of different activities for people to do, like cornhole and a pumpkin toss.”
Moon Flower will also have its fall drink menu available, along with a big sale on its products.
“We’re going to be offering caricature drawing. My mom owns Wet Nose Photos, and she’s going to do a little fall photo shoot if you want to bring your dog — it’s definitely a dog-friendly event,” Queen said. “The first 25 people are going to get swag bags; it’s a Moon Flower tradition. We’ll showcase some of our new strains that we’re harvesting, we’ll have some really cool stuff in the edible cooler, and our new fall drink menu will launch by then.”
The festival is also Moon Flower’s way of celebrating the end of their growing season with the community.
“We’ve been up to our necks in harvesting the past couple of weeks, and we have a lot of cool strains coming out, so we wanted to celebrate the end of our season of hard work and have a good time with the community,” Queen said. “We want people to come out, enjoy the live music and shop around all the vendors. It’s a good chance to support many local businesses all at once.”
