The Riley Festival returns to Greenfield this year Oct. 3-6. This photo was taken during the 2023 festival.
Daily Reporter file photo
GREENFIELD – The Riley Festival is returning to Greenfield Oct. 3-6, and applications are open now for contests in baking, poetry, photography and more.
The festival is one of Indiana’s largest craft events featuring food, commercial, flea market booths and more, alongside traditional parades and contests.
“A Barefoot Boy” is the theme for this year’s festival, which commemorates the birthday of famous Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley. One of Riley’s poems is selected every year to be highlighted.
A new website, rileyfestival.com, is home to all of the applications to participate in events happening during the festival.
Some of the contests take place prior to the start of the festival. The queen pageant is Sept. 22 at the H.J. Ricks Centre for the Arts; the deadline to apply is Sept. 8. The Little Miss and Little Mr. Pageant will be the same day.
All Hancock County residents are welcome to join in the Baker’s Best contest. The program is sponsored by Tuttle Orchards and the Hancock County Extension Homemakers, and this year’s theme is “pumpkin.”
The contest will be 9-10 a.m. Sept. 28 at the Hancock County Extension office, 972 E. Park Ave., Greenfield. Judging will begin at 10:15 a.m.; winners will have their picture taken along with their baked product displayed at the Home Arts Show during the festival at the Hancock County Courthouse Annex.
The grand champion, in addition to receiving a $50 cash prize, will present their winning baked entry to the mayor at the Mayor’s Breakfast festival event Oct. 5. See the website for rules.
The festival features two parades.
Applications on the website are also open for the fine arts show, home arts show, pumpkin and photography contests. Poetry contests are in open classes, and for fourth graders.
The annual Parade of Flowers will be at 1 p.m. Oct. 4, featuring third graders from all four county school corporations carrying bouquets of flowers to the Riley statue on the courthouse lawn; this is a tradition more than 75 years old.
The general parade is at 11 a.m. Oct. 5, starting at Greenfield-Central High School and running through the downtown festival. Applications for the parade are online now, with a deadline to apply Sept. 28; only the first 75 entries will be accepted.
