Berry Street Festival returns this weekend

A south side tradition will be reborn this Saturday, albeit in a slightly different form than before.

But for Berry Street residents Derek Chastain and Jennifer Grumme, it’s a matter of civic pride to be organizing a new version of the fall festival that bears their street’s name.

So, the Berry Street Festival, absent since 2017, will be back on Saturday, Oct. 2 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

“I’m very into finding ways to get the community together,” Chastain said. “I think the last two years have shown people how important it is to get togther with other people.”

With that in mind, the event is set to feature food, music and various vendor booths, in addition to any neighbors who might use the opportunity to set up a yard sale.

While the entirety of Berry Street could be involved, the road will actually be closed between Indiana Street and College Avenue for music and vendor space.

The Chastains moved to Putnam County, though not Berry Street itself, several years ago when the festival was still going. When they moved to Berry Street earlier this year, Chastain told his wife he wanted to get the festival going again.

They soon shared the idea with Grumme and things have grown from there.

“I started reading up on the history of the Berry Street Festival,” Chastain said. “This is rooted in the whole history of the area.”

He learned of how in the 1940s, Russell Myers and several other Berry Street residents organized an annual picnic for the neighborhood at McCormick’s Creek.

Then in 1975, Jackie Young and Joyce Leer organized the Berry Street Yard Sale, also known as the Berry Street Festival. Having grown up in the era of the picnics, Young and Leer found a new way to promote neighborhood togetherness, in the process creating a tradition that even those outside the neighborhood could participate.

But this tradition also dwindled away, finally running its course in 2017.

However, Chastain and Grumme hope this new version takes hold.

“It just seemed like the right thing to do to get this going, especially for the kids,” Chastain, a father of four, said. “I’ve heard stories from people growing up in the area , how they would just run up and down the street during the festival.”

Food during the festival will include Hogg Wild Barbecue, neighbors grilling and cotton candy. Vendors will include pottery, Studio Stitch, zucchini bread, fragrances, custom jewelry, decor, handmande T-shirts, glass antiques, painted antiques and Paparazzi jewelry.

A new addition will be the music at 15 E. Berry St., which will feature Chastain himself from 10-11 a.m., Black Market Vinyl from noon-1 p.m. and songwriters in the round from 2-4 p.m.

The featured songwriters will be Anthony Mullis, Bittersweet and Carly and Josh Brown.

With the focus on kids, there will also be a scavenger hunt from 1-2 p.m., with the winners receiving free ice cream from Scoops.

With just the one block closed, the festival is certainly not as large as it once was, but Chastain said the plan was to start small and see what happens.

“I’m hoping to expand it, but there will be yard sales down the street,” Chastain said. “We didn’t want to close the whole street.”

Chastain acknowledges that the new festival won’t look exactly like the old one, but it also wouldn’t be the first time traditions have changed.

“I hope by bringing people into it, we can get the tradition revived,” he said. “And if it turns into something different, so be it. That’s what Joyce and Jackie did. That started as a yard sale and became more of a festival.”

What will the new Berry Street festival become? Time will tell.