5 Indiana Small-Town Traditions That Still Run Every Fall Like It’s 1975

When the leaves turn, several small Indiana towns fill their streets with festivals.

Some have been going for generations, and plenty of Hoosiers plan their autumn weekends around them.

Read on for the traditions that keep these towns on the calendar year after year.

1. Versailles Pumpkin Show

The Versailles Pumpkin Show began on Saturday, October 14, 1899, when a jeweler named Alfred H. Beer offered five prizes to promote his jewelry business.

The heaviest pumpkin won a gold-filled watch, and the ugliest won a violin.

The first winning pumpkin weighed 74 pounds.

By 2023, the show’s record-holder pumpkin had reached 1,765 pounds, according to Eagle Country 99.3.

That’s nearly 24 times heavier than the first winner.

Your garden needs work.

The show’s cancellations include World War II, from 1942 through 1945, and 2020.

This year’s show ran September 23-26 on the Ripley County Courthouse Square.

On Saturday, a 10:30 a.m. parade led into the Giant Pumpkin Weigh Off.

You’ll find the show in a town of 2,037 residents, according to Census Reporter’s 2024 estimates.

2. Persimmon Festival

The Persimmon Festival’s records list a 1975 theme, “Our Living Heritage 1775-1975,” and a queen for that year.

Mitchell, a city of 3,937 residents, first held the festival in 1947, when educator George Bishop planned a homecoming in late October.

This year’s festival, the 79th, ran September 19 through 26.

The persimmon pudding contest on Saturday, September 26, required a 4-by-4-inch piece with no topping of any kind.

Winners from the previous two years couldn’t enter.

If you cut open a persimmon seed, a spoon inside points to heavy snow, according to Indiana Public Media.

A knife means bitter cold, and a fork means a mild winter.

You’ll want the fork.

3. Parke County Covered Bridge Festival

The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival was founded in 1957, according to its website.

The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival Association’s 1957 map at the Indiana State Library numbers the bridges and lays out a sightseeing route.

Visit Indiana’s preview of the 2013 festival called it the 57th annual.

That preview listed guided bus tours, marked driving routes and food such as sassafras candy, crullers and persimmon ice cream.

This year’s festival has 31 covered bridges, plus arts and crafts and food.

The festival always starts on the second Friday in October.

Festival headquarters is on the courthouse lawn in Rockville, a town of 2,559 residents.

The county has nine festival communities, each with a specialty.

You don’t need a ticket, and the site warns against paying anyone who sells them.

Save your money.

4. Metamora Canal Days

Metamora Canal Days drew more than 120,000 visitors in 2017.

Metamora has roughly 500 residents.

That's quite a crowd.

Canal Days first ran in September 1969 as a two-day festival, Indy South says.

The News-Examiner traces it to the early 1960s instead.

Either way, it started before 1975.

The festival later stretched to three days, which helped ease traffic on crowded weekends.

This year's festival ran October 2-4.

Historic Metamora, the group behind it, manages the spaces along Main Street and the Whitewater Canal, where it features antiques and collectibles.

If you're shopping for handmade items, look in Mill Park, where the group rents spaces to individuals selling handcrafted work.

The festival's motto, according to the Franklin County Welcome Center, is “If you can't find it at Canal Days, you probably didn't need it.”

5. Fairmount James Dean Festival

The Fairmount Historical Museum says it has sponsored the James Dean Festival since 1975, the same year it formally organized.

If you're planning a trip, the museum holds the three-day festival on the last full weekend in September.

This year, that meant September 25 through 27.

The museum's list for the festival includes a James Dean look-alike contest, a 1950s dance contest and a car show of about 2,000 cars.

You'll want to arrive early.

The same contests appeared in Visit Indiana's 2015 festival guide, along with a car show called the James Dean Run.

Its 2016 guide listed a memorial service at the Back Creek Quaker church Dean attended, followed by a short walk to Park Cemetery.

Fairmount has 2,662 residents, according to Census Reporter's 2024 estimate.

Festivals That Stretched

The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival began as a single weekend, then grew to two weekends and now covers 10 consecutive days, according to a syndicated newspaper travel column.

That's a long stretch.

The Persimmon Festival grew from a three-day homecoming in late October into a week-long celebration.

Whichever one you pick, you'll want more than a weekend.

Mitchell is officially a city, but with fewer than 4,000 residents it still fits the small-town label.

Volunteers and Proceeds

If you wonder who keeps the pumpkin show going, the Versailles Lions Club runs it year-round with volunteers, according to Eagle Country 99.3.

The proceeds support children's vision programs in 52 schools, Special Olympics, scholarships, disaster relief and Camp Woodstock for children with special needs.

If you're curious about the food, the club schedules The Rolling Pin, a local restaurant and caterer, for the food booth.

The caterer is set to prepare more than 225 pounds of pulled pork and enough flour, sugar and cinnamon for more than 700 elephant ears.

That's a lot of pork.

In Mitchell, the Greater Mitchell Chamber of Commerce hosts the Persimmon Festival each year.