The founders of a harvest festival that made its inaugural run last year are hoping for a huge turnout — and blue skies — when it returns the last weekend of September:

“We’re hoping for good weather,” co-founder Michelle Sousa Peay and her husband, Brian Peay, said. “It’s going to be a great event.”

The couple hoped for the same last year, when their inaugural South Coast Harvest Festival ran for three days at the Westport Fairgrounds at 200 Pine Hill Road. Though the last day drew nearly 4,000 people, the first two were all but a washout — heavy rains kept attendance low, and the headcount was as low as 200 or 300 on the rainiest of the days.

The harvest festival is a labor of love for the couple, who have been professional garden designers for years and se the event as a way to bring a showpiece fall festival back to Westport, which last had a similar event 20-odd years ago, but never since.

Sousa Peay participated in the Rhode Island Flower Show for 25 years, and over that time "we developed a nice family of gardeners." But when the flower show closed, it got her to thinking about another way to bring talented artists and designers together.

"When the show ended I didn't want to end those connections — it was one of the best things to happen in my career."
So she and her husband, who have both volunteered at the fairgrounds' gardens for years, decided the fairgrounds would be a great place for a new harvest festival.

"So we started a business and started working on it. It was two years in the making and despite the rain (last year) the people were so positive that we had to do it again. We're hoping it's going to be an annual thing."

Rain or not, there should be plenty to do.
This year, more than 50 artisan vendors have signed on, up substantially from the 15 who participated last year. Prices have been lowered from last year, and currently stand at $10 for adults, $5 for children and kids under that age free.
Apart from scores of garden designs and exhibits, vendors, food trucks and other attractions, there will be a dog show, a visit by Animal Ambassadors, a Cape Cod group that will bring foxes, birds of prey, reptiles and other animals, even an owl presentation.

There will be an illusionist, antique tractors and the music will be an "eclectic mix of country, bluegrass, reggae" and other genres.

Richard Kaiser, one of the original pumpkin carvers from the Roger Williams Zoo Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, will give demonstrations on how to make the perfect carved pumpkin, and there will also be pony rides for the kids, a petting zoo, a mechanical bull and plenty of yard games. The gardens will be illuminated in the evening, as well.

When?
The South Coast Harvest Festival kicks off on Friday, Sept. 27 from 10 am to 8 pm, and continues Saturday, Sept. 28, during the same hours. It concludes Sunday, Sept. 29, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.