The Blackland Prairie Days may be shrinking its footprint this year, but organizers hope it will be bigger and more unique than ever.
At the Feb. 23 meeting, the City Council approved condensing the block span of the May 6th festival, which will feature a vintage tractor show, live music that reflects the ethnic and cultural heritage of the city, vendors, children’s activities, including mini tractors, and more, an organizer said.
“I am excited,” said Main Street Manager Jan Harris. “I think that a lot of people are talking about it and wanting to be a part of it.”
Harris said one major change to the festival this year will be limiting its footprint to the streets immediately surrounding Heritage Square only, including North Main, Washburn and East Fourth streets.
“We thought it may be a better idea to condense our festival because when we had the vendors scattered down trying to go from Fifth Street down to just this side of Second Street, it got a little thin.”
Harris said she had already received 10 applications from vendors and was encouraging people to get theirs in as soon as possible, especially for food.
“It’s first come, first served, and we try not to duplicate,” she said. “Don’t sit on it. Apply early.”
Harris said due to the popularity of the first weekend in May for similar events like the Pecan Street Festival in Austin, it was important to consolidate vendors, performers and fairgoers.
“(The park) was built for something like this and designed to accommodate activities within the footprint of that block,” Harris said.
To increase attendance and to distinguish Blackland Prairie Days from other festivals, another change to the festival will be the addition of an antique tractor show, Harris said.
“A couple of our board members kept saying we were originally an agricultural community,” Harris said. “We thought, ‘OK, Car shows are what we do, what about tractors?’” Harris said she was inspired by similar shows in southern Georgia where she used to work, which also featured tractor- themed activities.
‘Don’t worry Tyler, I’m not going to do a tractor pull in the park,” Harris joked to the Parks Director Tyler Bybee.
Harris said in addition to providing more density to the festival, the change will be more affordable for the city.
“It will be less expensive, I anticipate, for city services not having to go with blocking and going through TxDOT on Main Street from above Fifth down to Second,” she said.
At the meeting, Jim Gray, the director of Public Works, confirmed the savings will be significant, but could not yet provide specific dollar amounts.
