The Harvest Moon Festival is Ogden’s annual family-friendly event that marks the end of summer and welcomes fall. This year’s festival was on Historic 25th Street on Sept. 17.

The festival started off with the NUHOPE Suicide Awareness Walk. Making a statement for those impacted by suicide, the community gathered together for a symbolic walk.

The COVID-19 pandemic had wide-reaching impacts on festivals and annual events such as the Harvest Moon Festival but last year marked both their first year back and their 20th anniversary.

“It was a little bit of a different scale because it was our first year back,” Haille Van Patten the marketing and public relations director for Ogden Downtown Alliance said. “This year, there are more vendors. We were able to get more people this year and then fill the street a little bit more.”

The Harvest Moon Festival had something for everyone. The event featured children’s activities, live music put on by local artists, community partners, local vendors and a rocking climbing wall. The festival also had roaming magicians, stilt walkers and Wizard of Oz cosplayers.

“We usually average about 30,000 people, which is what we’re expecting this year,” Van Patten said. “Last year, we had about 24,000, so we’re hoping to get that number back up to 30,000.”

This year, the Harvest Moon Festival was the biggest one to date, bringing community members together and showcasing Ogden’s variety of vendors.

“We’ve been down here with these events to kind of put our name out here to tell you guys all the cool stuff we have coming up,” Kaffe Mercantile employee Lilly McCrady said.

Events like these help introduce the community to small businesses and new businesses to bring the community together.

“We always love to be able to push our business and our value for our community,” McCrady said. “You know, we have been very committed to getting to know people who are here and helping out and contributing to things around here.”