OKMULGEE, Okla. – The Muscogee (Creek) Nation was the presenting sponsor of the annual Pecan Festival. The community event takes place in downtown Okmulgee, the capital city of the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation.
Hosted by the Okmulgee Chamber of Commerce and the Okmulgee Main Street organization, the festival is sponsored in part by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation along with the College of Muscogee Nation as a partner.
A $4,000 contribution from the Nation was given to the hosts for the festival.
This years’ festival was moved from the hot month of June to the pecan-flourishing month of October.
The famous pecan brittle was prepared and packaged by Chef Grady Perryman, the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology Culinary Department, Okmulgee Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors, Melissa Parchman, and the staff from Magoon and Associates.
The downtown square where the historic Muscogee Council House sits, acted as the center of the festival, setting the foundation for vendors along the central hub.
Carnival rides kicked off the three-day event on the evening of Thursday, Oct. 26. It continued on Friday evening with additional events.
Saturday’s agenda was full with events starting at 8 a.m., and lasting until 11 p.m.
Live entertainment included local favorites like the Lance Gouge Band on Friday and the Brent Giddens Band on Saturday. Both bands feature one or more Mvskoke people in them.
After last year’s extreme summer heat put a damper on the festival, the chamber and partnering organizations thought the date change would be attractive to festival attendees.
After the festival’s first announcement in May, feedback seemed positive. Unfortunately, the weekend’s rainy weather put restraints on many of the outdoor events.
The Scare on the Square event hosted nearly 50 local businesses/organizations handing out candy for the community to trick-or-treat, along the Council House Square. One Fire Casino was one of the 50 businesses.
Umbrella Alley
Sponsors and organizers want to bring positive attention to the downtown area. Another way the community is creating positivity is using an empty downtown alleyway. Okmulgee Main Street organization members were inspired after seeing the usage of unused alleys in a town called Pikeville, Kentucky. After nearly two years, the project was launched on Oct. 3.
“We can’t thank everyone enough that chose to spend their Saturday transforming this alley and making dreams come to fruition,” Okmulgee Main Street said in a Facebook post.
Clint and Megan Wilson (Mvskoke) and Rod Weimer allowed the organization to utilize the space in between their buildings for the project located at 5th Street between Grand and Morton.
For more information on the Annual Pecan Festival, visit the Okmulgee Main Street page on Facebook.
