The West Family will celebrate their 75th anniversary as they welcome visitors to the sunflower farm.
The 11th Annual Sunflower Farm Festival showcases 20-acres of sunflowers in full bloom. The two day event will take place from Saturday, June 30 to Sunday, July 1 at 1430 Durden Road in Rutledge.
Visitors will be welcomed by live music, an artist market, an enchanted forest, an antique tractor show, and all the summertime food that they can eat. Also, this year the farm will be serving fresh and homemade peach and strawberry ice cream. All the food is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Morgan County.
With more than 9,400 in attendance last year, Rena Holt of the Sunflower Farm said they are expecting 2,000 more people this year.
"We are going to have many painters who specialize in painting sunflowers and we will be having great bands play," said Holt.
Holt also said there are three gardens for visitors to walk through so they can get a sense of the landscape where the sunflowers are grown.
Admission to the festival is $8 and that fee covers admission for both days. The main event of course will be the sunflowers. For the minimal price of $15, attendees can go home with a bouquet of 20-25 sunflowers.
Special to this year, Holt said they will be holding a session from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on the first day of the event where the Georgia Hummer Group will be capturing and banding hummingbirds. They will be tracking the hummingbirds to see where they go. The proceeds from that event will go to a federal wildlife program.
"We will be having a parade called Cruisin' for a Cure, which will be a fundraising event that will go through Relay for Life," said Holt, also mentioning that the importance of this event related back to family members she lost to cancer.
The parade will be on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.
For those who are anxious to see the sunflowers and bring some home before the event, the country market on the farm will open on Saturday June 16 for cutting.
For more information about the 11th Annual Sunflower Farm Festival visit sunflowerfarmfestival.com.
