One of the best festivals in Indiana. It takes place in downtown Mitchell spanning two city blocks…read morealong with side streets. There are a lot of activities during the week long festival for all ages, from a 5K to a pageant to a road rally. Local entertainment each night on a main street stage. Definitely don't want to miss. Always the last full week in September.

I had so much fun at the International Bar-B-Q festival in Owensboro, KY! This was my first time…read moreand I was working, but I got plenty of breaks to walk about booths and eat a lot of food and check out a lot of what else they had to offer. I had a vendor parking pass, but I saw multiple parking lots very close to the event for around $5 and you can also park on the street at meters (the 2 hour parking signs do not apply for this event). They block off a huge section of multiple roads in downtown Owensboro for the event. The first and most important thing to remember, bring cash!! I work events all the time and normally one can find an atm SOMEWHERE. I was there both days of the festival walked the booths (not all of them but most) and never found an atm. Most booths are cash only, only a few took cards which was a bummer. People come from all over the world and it did get very crowded in the evening and late at night. The festival was on Friday at 5pm to 11 pm and Saturday 9 am to 11 pm. They had a lot of different activities including four different stages with bands playing music, a 5k run/walk in Saturday morning, a mutton sandwich eating contest, a deadlifting contest, a pie eating contest, a keg toss, and rides for kids! I don't feel like I could have seen it all if I had gone for just fun! So, the food! What most people came for! The first thing I tried out was from Big Horn beef. I had their steak dinner. It was $12 and had steak, smashed potatoes, mushrooms, and onions all in one container together. It was all wellseasoned and delicious. They also offered Worcestershire sauce and Bar-B-Q sauce to put on it but I opted out, it tasted great on it's own! The portion was well sized for the priced. I will also post their menu so people can see their other options. I then got the best pina colada I have ever had in my life! it was non alcoholic, but sooo delicious, it was from the booth called Pina Colada Caribean Style. My work friend bought 4 of them throughout the 2 days. You get get a cup for $6 or get it in a decorated pineapple cup (they use real pineapple in their drinks) for $8 or a large cup for $12. Now for the Bar-B-Q. Most of ths Bar-B-Q stands had sandwiches for $4-5 some had them up to $7, almost none took card! Most of them offered burgoo and pork or mutton bbq sandwiches though I did sre some with ribs ans more options. They all looked pretty good but I had to go with the one that took card which was Moonlite Bar-B-Q. I got the mutton sandwich, baked beans, and potatoes salad to $8. I did try their bbq sauce on my sandwich and it was underwhelming. The meat was cooked well but it was a very thin sauce and I don't think it paired well with the seasonings already on the mutton and they only offered that one sauce. The sides were both good but nothing that wowed me. I ate at this spot again simply because they took card and got just a bbq pork sandwich which I liked better, the meat was very tender and delicious. This time I went to a stand that was accross the street from them that just sold bbq sauce and put some of their sweet and savory sauce on the sandwich. This is what I had been waiting for, a dry rub can be nice, but what is a Bar-B-Q festival without a good bbq sauce?! The sauce was from Johnny's Savory Sauces located in Washington, IN and it was one of the best bbq sauces I have ever had and I have had a lot! I will be ordering some sauce from them as they took card but no cards were able to process. This sauce was what I had expected. There were some other food stands that were not what I would expect at an international bbq festival, typical fair food booths with the massive signs of pictures of their food and no name along with plates of old food out to show you what they serve. Mostly corndogs, gyros, blooming onions, etc. I eat at places like that all the time at events and am frequently disappointed by their food especially for the price. The great part about the actual bbq booths was how inexpensive they were for getting fresh quality food. If I had been able to get cash, I would have bought more bbq sanswches just to try them all. Now for dessert! I had homemade ice cream from Chaney's Dairy Barn. I ordered a double scoop of the birthday cake ice cream in a cup for $5. It was excellent ice cream, smooth and creamy and had chunks of cake and sprinkles in it but not too many. They offered cones as well. They make their ice cream on their farm with milk from their cows! The other booths at the festival I went to were meh. They had some of the same booths that are at conventions with the cheaply made sunglasses, low quality clothing reminiscent of stuff you would find at the dollar store in the early 2000s, and cheap jewelry. I would have loved to have seen more local stores with booths and handmade crafts.

It's a festival folks! I have made it to everyone except for the 2 years that I lived out of town…read more No mater what I try to attend at least a few hours on one of the days it is going on. Just remember it is always the 2nd weekend in May or the weekend after the KY derby.

My favorite street festival with all the fried things! The West Side Nut Club is an institution in…read moreEvansville, Indiana and the best kept secret outside southern Indiana. Grew up going every year and hadn't been able to make it down for close to 10 years, but finally was able to have a homecoming and on their 100th anniversary too! Some favorites include Stromboli's from the TKE booth, fried green beans and mac & cheese from the Vanderburgh Humane Society booth, Italian beef, chicken & dumplings and fried cookie dough. This year I also found a Ski slushy. What's Ski, you ask? It's a lemon lime drink that has a cult following in the tri-state region and one of the only places it's sold. Next October, if you're looking for a fun food time, make the trip to Evansville, grab a munchie map and start walking down Franklin St.!

We've been coming to this fall festival each year able for around a decade. It's become a tradition…read moreto meet up with good friends and check it out, splitting foods and tasting a bit of everything on offer. There are a LOT of food options and while basically NONE of it is healthy, quite a lot of it is TASTY. Plan to bring $50 or so in cash and an appetite. If you're here at a peak busy time there will be a crowd and a line at the more popular booths (e.g. the "Donut Bank Burger"). I will say that in recent years the festival has cleaned up a lot--it used to be overflowing with garbage and just a general mess which in some ways was part of the appeal, it was not formal in any way and it's a people-watching extravaganza. But this recent year (2023) things were orderly, clean, and neat. Some of the booths seemed to be phoning it in a bit, we all had to say (e.g. that aforementioned "Donut Bank Burger" used to be a primary draw for us but this year they didn't even bother to melt the cheese on the burger) but there's still plenty of good food to be had and a lot of churches and charities to support (from across the spectrum, so if choosing to support or not support a specific cause is of interest to you, you can do that).

Cute little Artisan and Craft Fair. First annual at Burdette Park. The setting is absolutely…read moreperfect and the fall colors make this a relaxing shopping experience. Excellent vendors set up and super friendly customer service!! The food vendors were really good and delicious! Hopefully this event will become a yearly event and offer even more each year! The live band did not set up until 2:00 which was a little disappointing. But overall I think this event was great and a fun shopping day!

I was so excited to hear that that Kingfish was performing at the annual blues festival in…read moreHenderson, KY in 2021!! I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to his mom, Princess Pride, in Clarksdale, MS 7 or 8 years ago when he was only 15. We'd never heard of him before, but we knew then we were witnessing something amazing. Since that time we've been to more than a few of his concerts, traveling quite a ways and he's worth it! Two years ago he played in Nashville with Buddy Guy. It was AWESOME!!!! The blues festival was fun, and if possible and you like the blues, don't miss it in 2022!

Great sweet wines and one of the best views of any winery we have been to in the Midwest.read more

We sampled several wines & both sangrias & we brought several home! The owner served us & was very…read morefriendly & kind. The views are fantastic overlooking the water & the whole place is very relaxing & laid back.

This was my first visit and my g/f's second time here. The town is very charming and the people…read morethere are very friendly. The labyrinths are fantastic and worth a visit. The history of this small town is fascinating and the Owens did a magnificent job of creating and maintaining many original historic buildings. We had some fun by taking a walking tour of the haunted side of New Harmony with the folks at Haunted New Harmony ghost walk. https://jonimayhan.com/ This town is the perfect respite from the everyday hassles of the outside world. It's only an hour+ ride from Garden of the Gods in IL. I was surprised it wasn't more of an arts community hangout. This town has a Woodstock, NY vibe just under the surface.

New Harmony was founded by the Harmonists, a communal religious group, in 1814. In 1824, the…read moreHarmonists left and sold the town to Robert Owen, a utopian socialist who established a commune there, complete with communal living, public education, and the abolition of private property and money. From its lofty beginnings, things turned out pretty much as you'd expect a social experiment like New Harmony to turn out: residents quarreled, public goods were neglected, and the town was dissolved within a few short years. Well, sort of like the New Harmony of the early 19th century, the New Harmony of today promises a lot more than it actually delivers. Useful information on the town, and the much-vaunted "Atheneum" visitors' center, is hard to come by; and the Disneyesque city streets, though clean and pleasant, comes off as sterile and uninteresting. Though I went there on a pleasant day in early May, the streets were empty and many of the shops were closed -- even those with signs indicating that they 'should' be open. We eventually tried to satisfy our museum craving at the Working Men's Institute Library and Museum, finding it open despite a sign indicating that it 'should' be closed! Much like the rest of New Harmony, the Working Men's Institute sounded a lot better than it actually was. Full disclosure, we got to the Atheneum at 3pm, and thus missed the last tour which left at 2. But the fact that no tours were listed on the website meant that we didn't even know why we were going there or what the Atheneum was supposed to offer. The nice lady who greeted us told us that "the upstairs was closed", but it's only now that I learn that the upstairs offers a museum and a film -- two things that, like Socialism itself, sound nice in theory but are remarkably hard to enjoy in real life. The upshot is that New Harmony is better in theory than it is in practice. In that sense, they seem to get the historical accuracy just right.

Just got back from attending their annual 3-day Volkfest. What an awesome time. 3 days of oom-pah…read moremusic combined with some classic dance tunes, beer and specially made brautwurst makes for a great time. This annual event draws thousands to the beer garden and tent located right behind the historic Germania Mannerchor building. Entry fee is $4, pitchers of beer $6 (Bud products, Shock Top, Killians, Miller, etc.) with Warsteiner or Becks at $12. Everyone is a friend here....sharing their beer, joining with the band for traditional German toast, and allowing the liquid courage to carry them out on the dance floor for a little "chicken dance" or polka. If you are from Evansville you will definitely run into an old high school friend or maybe even the next door neighbor from years ago. Don't forget to grab a brautwurst with sauer kraut. They have their secret recipe that is only used for this festival...some have wanted them to mass produce and sell into grocery stores, but they always decline. Put it on your calendar for next year -- I believe it is always held on the first weekend of August.