Sunflower festival offered peaceful and relaxing fun
Aug. 19th was the last day for the Coshocton Sunflower Festival, this year at the Coshocton KOA. The field is still in peak bloom because the flowers were a little late this year and so more flowers came out than usual. This is the only time in the season when the zinnia patches are open for picking.
“This is our third weekend and final day,” Ryan McPeek said. “Last weekend was our main festival weekend, and it went well. The weather was pretty good. Sunday the weather was beautiful. The festival closed for a few days to give everyone a reset and opened again Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Thursday and Friday were just for walk ins and u-pick where you pick your own flowers.”
Camille McPeek said, “We were out in the field last night to cut some sunflowers and we met a family from Pennsylvania who drove for three or four hours to visit the field. They have been coming here for four seasons now. They really enjoy the quiet u-pick days. Some people prefer the quiet days because it’s a non-festival day, there is no live music or beer and wine garden or food trucks. It is just enjoying the field, cutting your own flowers, listening to the birds chirping, the bees and that is really what it is all about. They like the access to the flowers because we plant them with spaces that work as a pathway for people to come close to each sunflower and the butterflies and the bees. All our staff really contribute to our prep work. I am very impressed with how our team works every year making it run smoothly operation wise for our guests to have lots of fun. It’s the people who help prepare for it that make it more fulfilling.
Camille said her mother-in-law Shelley McPeek collects the photo props for the fields and her father-in-law John McPeek helps to put them out there. “We use the same props every year, but she also comes up with new ones,” Camille said. “It takes a lot of time preparing for the festival start. We are buying the seeds in the winter and my mother-in-law handles the planting of the field. I really think the sunflower festival happened because of Shelley; she plants the seeds. It’s a team effort but she is the mind behind the varieties we plant, where we place them and the timing of planting. All our staff really contributes to our prep work. Amy Hamilton takes care of the food trucks. We have another person Mark Wills who plants the 50 varieties of sunflowers with his corn planter. ”
Breann and Lillian Ingram from Byesville were with their mom, Melanie Ingram.
“We are having fun. We are going to go listen to some music and get all kinds of flowers,” Breann said.
Lillian said, “The flowers and stuff around here is really pretty except for the bees.”
Category: Arts & Entertainment, Multimedia, Photo Galleries
