Bell Tower Festival is HERE!
Bell Tower Festival kicks off the best time of the year in Jefferson - SUMMER ☀️
This is my favorite jam-packed weekend of fun here in Greene County - we have the carnival, fun events like the pie cook-off, tournaments for pickleball and basketball, so many vendors, and delicious choices at the brew station! Taking a look at the full schedule can make it difficult (in a good way) to choose what you’d like to do - so I’ll share community favorites and a few of my own to guide you through the best weekend of the summer.
For the full list of events, check out belltowerfestival.com or the BTF Facebook Page
Friday night festivities kick-off at 5 PM with our vendors opening, the carnival starting up, and the brew station slingin’ drinks. The Puzzle Challenge is new this year, and while registration is full, it will be a fun event to watch! Teams have to finish a challenging 500-piece puzzle, eat an entire large pizza, and drink a case of their drink of choice. As a participant in a trial run of this event, it’s a BLAST!
Our fun giveaway event this year is the Tower Toss - register here to have your name entered in the drawing. Registration is FREE - The Tower Toss happens Friday, June 7th, at 7:30 pm, on the SW corner of the square, next to the Bell Tower. Up to seven people will be randomly and electronically drawn to see who will go up in a Mechanical lift, a minimum of 42 feet in the air to throw an actual BELL onto a target. Closest to the BULLSEYE takes all - $1,000!
Friday night ends with a Street Dance to the tunes played by Red Dirt Renegade - grab those dancing shoes or boots and your favorite dance partner and get to dancin’! 🤠 💃🏼
After a night of fun and dancing, Saturday comes quickly! Grab some coffee from Greene Bean or Chirp and get started with the Fireman’s Breakfast. Our Big Wheel Races are back this year for the kiddos - swing by the square before you grab your seat for the parade for some kid-sized fun on big wheels!
The parade is a long-time community favorite with entries from our favorite businesses, family and friends, and graduation classes. The route starts at the middle school, comes down Chestnut St to the square, takes a right onto Lincoln Way, and ends at the fairgrounds! Bring a tote for your kiddos to collect all the goodies that will be thrown out! And maybe some earplugs for those little ears when the sirens come by 🚨
The rest of the day is filled with more fun for every kind of person! Tournaments, good food, craft vendors, carnival rides, and more entertainment. You truly can’t ask for more!
Here’s my personal gameplan for Saturday afternoon - grab some lunch from one of the vendors, then I’ll go watch the pickleball and mud volleyball tournaments for a while, snag an afternoon snack from another vendor, try a new flavor of cider from the Brew Station, and chill out under the sun shades. Then I’ll check out trivia and cheer on my favorites at the bags tournament! Bingo will be a blast and I will definitely play a few rounds (cash winners every round!!). Then it’s time for street dance #2 played by Black Top - I’ll put on my boots, grab a Go for Gold Margarita, and start dancin’! I’ll round out the night volunteering in the brew station with my fellow Bell Tower Festival Committee members and maybe cheers to the weekend with a funnel cake or two 🍻
A few BTF Crew members from last year. Left to Right: Josh and Emily Dyer, Tim Heisterkamp, and Lyndsey Wathen.
Our team has worked hard since last summer to put on this fun and free event for the community this weekend. I’m so proud of my team members and the effort that has gone into planning and executing the Bell Tower Festival. If you see one of “Crew” tshirts out and about this weekend, know that they have put in long hours, sacrificed family time, and have done their best to make sure this is the best weekend of the year! Cheers to Summer and Happy Bell Tower Festival!!
