By Sherry Larson
People’s Defender
The annual Bentonville Harvest Festival is coming up on September 10 and 11. The festival began in 1976 as a Bicentennial project spearheaded by Eddie and Sue Naylor, Ethel Beam, and Jimmie Dale Wikoff, and Sue compiled a book on the history of Bentonville. In 1977 the festival’s name changed to the Bentonville Harvest Festival that it goes by today.
COVID-19 put a hiccup in the 2020 festival, but Beam had insisted at its onset that the festival continue to have a religious component. They celebrated the event with gospel singing. In 2021, Sue was ill with COVID and pneumonia, and the church decided not to hold service, marking the first time the festival was canceled since 1976.
Opening ceremonies for the 2022 event begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, with activities ranging from a Baby Show to GrandeParade at 2:30 p.m. Mr. & Mrs. Ronnie Applegate are serving as this year’s Grand Marshals. There is a combined church service at 11 a.m. on Sunday at the Bentonville Community Church.
