The Eden Corn Festival is a small fair

Fair

A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...

 held in the agriculture-based town of Eden

Eden, New York

Eden is a town located south of Buffalo, in Erie County, New York, USA. The population was 8,076 at the 2000 census. The basis for choosing the town's name is unknown....

. Eden is located in Erie County, New York

Erie County, New York

Erie County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,040. The county seat is Buffalo. The county's name comes from Lake Erie, which in turn comes from the Erie tribe of American Indians who lived south and east of the lake before 1654.Erie...

, and has some of the most fertile and well-drained soils in New York State, allowing farmers to grow over 300 acre (121 ha) of corn annually, and produce more early corn than anyone else in upstate New York.

History

In 1959, the Eden Chamber of Commerce

Chamber of commerce

A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...

 discussed the idea of holding an annual festival to promote the town. The resulting Garden Festival was held that year, but did not become an annual event. In 1962, the town had a very successful 150th Sesquicentennial celebration. Following the celebration, a man named John Munich brought up the idea to the Chamber of Commerce of a yearly corn festival aimed to make the town money and gain publicity. After further talk and planning, the Chamber President proposed the sweet corn festival in May, 1963, and the Eden Corn Festival was born. The dates were set for Saturday, August 15th, and Sunday, August 16th, due to this being the time of year that Eden's sweet corn would be most tender. Various committees were set up, and decisions had to be made regarding how big the festival should be, how much money would be required to finance it, and how the money could be raised, since the treasury

Treasury

A treasury is either*A government department related to finance and taxation.*A place where currency or precious items is/are kept....

 balance at the time amounted to a mere few hundred dollars. The festival would be held on the grounds of the Newell Faulkner Post of the American Legion

American Legion

The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...

 on Legion Drive and Route 62, and the committees received help from the American Legion and the Eden School District, who allowed the use of the parking lots on the school grounds and use of their athletic fields. The first corn festival was successful, featuring a carnival

Carnival

Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...

, corn judging and auction

Auction

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

, a corn queen beauty contest, pet show, tug-of-war, and a parade

Parade

A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind...

. Corn was sold for 10 cents an ear, and had to be picked in the dark to keep up with the demand for the 6,000 ears sold. Swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 events, lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

 and baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 games, square dancing, and a concert

Concert

A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

 provided additional entertainment. It was decided that the Eden Corn Festival would become an annual event, and it has been held every year since 1964.

Years Following

Early on, the festival was a local event. The concessionaires were local, and Zabel Amusements from Derby

Derby, New York

Derby, New York is a hamlet in Erie County, New York, USA. It is the Postal Address for much of the Town of Evans, within which Derby is fully contained. The Derby zip code is 14047. Derby is also home to the North Evans fire District which includes Highland Hose Volunteer Fire Company and the...

 provided the rides. In 1966, it was decided to enlarge the festival by having a bigger parade with more prizes. The attendance that year reached 2,500, and eventually, the parade drew marching units and groups from all over the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. A man named Bill Edwards became the Chairman of the Eden Corn Festival in 1974, an since then, it has become a four-day event. On August 2, 1978, a Guinness Book World Record

Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

 category for the most ears of corn eaten in five minutes was established, when Luis Pirada of Eden devoured 18 ears. Attendance this year reached 75,000, and by 1980, the project outgrew the Chamber's capabilities and they turned sponsorship over to the newly formed Eden Corn Festival, Inc., which consisted of members from various organizations in the town. Over the years, the physical ground of the festival was expanded, and by 1988 the Eden Volunteer Fire Department

Volunteer fire department

See also the Firefighter article and its respective sections regarding VFDs in other countries.A volunteer fire department is a fire department composed of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction.The first organized force of...

, which to this day sponsors the corn and french fry

French fries

French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...

 booths, was selling 45,000 ears of corn. By 1993, the parade had gotten too big and expensive and was almost canceled. The budget

Budget

A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...

 was reduced to $2,000-$3,000, when the cost of the 29th parade a year before had been $96,000. It was decided to scale down from the New York/Pennsylvania Parade and Judging Association's Championship that was filled with bands and floats from all over the Northeast to groups from Eden and Western New York. During this time, a craft show, car show, and talent show

Talent show

A talent show is an event where participants perform their talent or talents of acting, singing, dancing, acrobatics, drumming, martial arts, playing an instrument, and other activities to showcase a unique form of talent, sometimes for a reward, trophy or prize...

were added, along with more rides. The 30th annual corn festival of 1993 had 105,000 in attendance, and has averaged 200,000 people or more ever since. To this day, the Eden Corn Festival is held Thursday through Sunday during the first weekend in August, and inarguably remains the highlight of the year for the town's small population.

2008 Board of Directors

• Jeff Winter - President/Amusements Chairman/Long Range Planning Chairman

• Keith Gannon - 1st Vice President/Concessions Chairman/Parking Chairman

• Dave Rice - 2nd Vice President/Grounds Chairman

• Shannon Rice - Secretary/Sponsorship Chairperson/Entertainment Chairperson

• Janice Carter - Treasurer

• Gary Eye - Financial Advisory

• Sallie Bigelow - Advertising Chairperson/Marketing Chairperson/Information Technology Chairperson

• Tim Gannon - Arts and Craft Show Chairman/Trade Chairman

• Jennette Sturm - Go Green Chairperson

• Trish Kuest

• Mike Dau

• Tom Motak