ELY—It was a bittersweet morning early on Tuesday as Ely Chamber of Commerce Event Director Ellen Cashman was the first to arrive to “mark the park” for this weekend’s Harvest Moon Festival, which kicks off the fall season in Ely.
“Harvest Moon was the festival for the Ely Chamber of Commerce I took over back around 2010,” said Cashman who joined the chamber on a part-time basis shortly before that.
She came on at the chamber handling Tuesday Night Live, and about a year in, former Executive Director Linda Fryer said, “She’s in; I’m out!” That’s when Cashman was given the chance to start and/or take over events that included Music in the Park, the Holiday Parade, and Harvest Moon Festival. Over the next 12 years many things changed, events came and went, but this weekend’s Harvest Moon Festival continues on even as Cashman prepares to step down from her role as Event Director and pass those duties on to her mentee Jess Stott.
Cashman said she will, however, be staying on to run the WolfTrack Classic sled dog race held every year in February and pointed out that work on that has already started with the big Dollars for Doggies fundraiser kickoff coming up on Oct. 22.
Cashman was pleased to report that for the upcoming festival things have been coming together nicely. Of the 125 juried spots available to artists and vendors, 104 spots have been filled - many of those spots by vendors and artists who are relatively new additions to the festival, as many of the older vendors have discontinued traveling to festivals post-COVID.
This isn’t a bad thing, according to Cashman.
“We need new, fresh blood,” she said, adding that roughly 30 percent of this year’s vendors are new.
One relatively new vendor/artist she is particularly excited to see returning to this year’s festival is Chantal Netzer of The Sweet Leaf Farm.
“She has organic tea that she makes from the herbs that she grows. She makes tea and bath soaks and things – all organically grown,” Cashman said.
Another younger artist Cashman is excited to see back is painter Kristin Webster of Kristin Webster Art Studio. Many festivalgoers will be pleased, however, to hear that some long-time favorite vendors are also coming back, including Judy Christensen with Raucous Jewelry.
“She always is fabulous,” Cashman said.
Smokey Photo is another returning vendor.
“He used to back in the early 2000s photograph WolfTrack Classic back when we went to Cook, so hopefully he’ll have some of those photos,” she said.
Other new vendor/artists this year include Lion Heart Clay Works, The Studio Candle Co., Field of Dreams gifts & crafts, and Mystic Sparrow to name a few.
The Harvest Moon Festival is a juried show and booths will be judged by three local artist judges starting around 10 a.m. on Friday. Cashman said the judging, which involves tabulating who will receive first, second and third place in the art as well as the craft category, can take several hours.
In prior years, the Harvest Moon Festival has featured live music at the bandshell and stunt dogs, but Executive Director Eva Sebesta pointed out that escalating costs of the support services required to put on the festival have made it necessary to scale back the extra events and shine the spotlight on artists and vendors.
“That’s what the focus was back at the beginning of the event, so now we’re back to the higher quality juried art and craft festival,” Cashman said. “Harvest Moon Festival draws a really good crowd of patrons and sales are generally pretty good for the artists, so we think that we’re going in the right direction.”
Jess Stott, who will take the lead beginning with next year’s festivals, is undaunted by the task of putting on an event of this size.
“I really like the festival side of everything, but I also like the aspect of putting it together more so than even attending the event,” she said. “I like seeing what everybody does to put it all together; that’s probably my favorite part of all of it.”
Sebesta added, “There’s a really good feeling when you’re sitting in the booth after everything is up, and the festival is running and you’re seeing all the folks coming in. There’s a real sense of accomplishment.”