What’s happening: It’s October, which means that Edgar the Grand Raven has made its annual return to downtown Farmington. The month-long Grand Raven Festival has once again opened with style as the Gabriel Brass Band helped kicked-off the annual festival with an opening night celebration this past Friday, Sept. 27. An October’s worth of festivities remains in the days and weeks ahead.
What it is: The Grand Raven Festival made its debut in October 2020 in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, an Edgar Poe-inspired festival dreamed up by the Farmington Downtown Development Authority as a means to get people back downtown – in accordance with the social distancing recommendations of its time. The festival has since become an annual tradition here, and has only grown in size and scope with each passing year.
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Brass Animals and the crowd rally around Edgar the Grand Raven in front of downtown's historic Masonic Hall in 2023. (File photo: David Lewinski)A face to the name: Following the festival’s debut in 2020, the Farmington DDA acquired a sculpture first featured at the 2012 ArtPrize in Grand Rapids. Artist Nick Jakubiak created what the DDA would come to name “Edgar the Grand Raven” with repurposed 55-gallon metal drums and abandoned automobile and bicycle tires. That’s no small feat as Edgar the Grand Raven measures out at approximately 6-feet-tall and weighs somewhere around 700 lbs.
[Related: Read “Former ArtPrize sculpture lands in downtown Farmington for the Grand Raven Festival” on Metromode.]
What’s planned: This year’s festival features the Grand Raven Bicentennial Scavenger Hunt, with 200 ravens placed throughout downtown and each tagged with a number and letter. Find all 200 ravens and complete the puzzle for a chance at one of three prizes. The scavenger hunt will remain installed through the end of the month; a deadline for submissions closes by midnight on October 31.
There’s more: Beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, the still relatively new cafe Blue Hat Coffee will host the Grand Raven Story Slam. Inspired by the popular Moth Story Hour series, guests are invited to take the stage and share their supernatural stories. The Grand Raven Story Slam is free, although registration is requested and is available
online.
The Grand Raven Pumpkin Carving contest offers a chance at prizes for those who drop off carved or painted pumpkins to Riley Park on Friday, Oct. 25. Free pumpkins will be available while supplies last at the Farmington Farmers & Artisans Market on Saturday, Oct. 19.
The Farmington Farmers & Artisans Market scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 26, will feature trick-or-treating opportunities among other Halloween-themed attractions. Trick-or-treating at downtown Farmington businesses occurs the same day from noon to 2 p.m.
Visit downtown Farmington online and on Facebook for a complete breakdown of the month’s activities and festivities planned for the 2024 Grand Raven Festival.
Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith.
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