I don’t remember a time when my family didn’t make an annual pilgrimage to the Matthews Covered Bridge Festival in Matthews, Indiana. When someone mentions the festival to me, several key images pop into my mind: the Covered Bridge itself, rows and rows of vendors, pork tenderloin sandwiches, chocolate malts, funnel cakes, gourds, and an assortment of awesome trinkets that chronicle my interests from childhood until now.
Matthews is a small town–if you can even call it a town–in East Central Indiana. During the years I lived in the next town over, Upland, I drove through Matthews hundreds of times. The best way to describe Matthews comes from Chalupa, who says it has a certain Children of the Corn feel to it. For me, it’s a place that creates a haunting feeling of What-Was/What-Could-Have-Been. The highway that runs the length of town (a half mile, at most) is far wider than your average country highway, all because Matthews was, at one point, the proposed next capital of Indiana. There are rumors (verified by Wikipedia, but nowhere else) that Matthews was once a bustling community with 100,000 residents. I don’t know where 99,500 of those residents disappeared to, but these days, Matthews has a population of under 600 people.
The Covered Bridge Festival, though, is something special. Held in an open field next to the Cumberland Bridge, which was built in 1877. Cars still drive across the bridge, especially during the September weekend of the Festival. It is always held the weekend after Labor Day, which makes it easy to remember. I call it the first day of the Weekend of Pork because day two takes place at the Hamilton County Volunteer Fire Department Hog Roast the next day. With tenderloins and pork chops on Friday followed by bbq on Saturday, it makes for a full weekend of pork!
There is plenty for my vegetarian friends to enjoy at the Covered Bridge Festival, though! It is not just about eating, eating, and eating. It’s about shopping!
This year was to be my first year at the festival since before moving to New Hampshire. I went to a LOT of craft fairs in NH, and none quite compare to this one. It’s part craft fair, part flea market, part country fair. Mom, her friend Rosemarie, and I packed Chuck into the car and drove up to Matthews. We stopped at a few yard sales–there are always a lot of yard sales the weekend of the festival–and got to the Festival in time for dinner.
Admission costs just $2, and parking is free.
I could explain the festival in great detail, but I think a photo gallery would be the most effective way to show you the event. Despite the fact that I have been to the Covered Bridge Festival more times than I can possibly remember, all of these photos were taken at the September 2011 fest.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Needless to say, I will be back next year.
And the year after that.
And the year after that.
And the year after that.
I just can’t resist seeing old friends, eating that good food, buying fun little trinkets, and the peoplewatching!
