The city of Tangent’s annual harvest festival will return this fall, featuring its first-ever combine demolition derby.
The event, organized by the nonprofit Tangent Together and sponsored by local businesses, will run all day Sept. 13 with activities taking place at Bass Estate Park and Tangent Elementary School.
Per the festival website, the day’s events are scheduled as follows:
- 6:30 a.m. – hot air balloon launch
- 7 a.m. – pancake breakfast
- 10 a.m. – community parade
- 11 a.m. – festival opens
- Noon – gates open for combine derby and tractor pull
- 1 p.m. – tractor pull begins
- 5 p.m. – combine demolition derby begins
- 6 p.m. – festival closes
The festival will feature a kids’ village, a vintage car and antique tractor show, live music from local bands, community booths, food trucks, a children’s pedal tractor pull and more.
Marcy Hermens, the director of the combine demolition derby and tractor pull events, said attending the festival will be free with the exception of the combine derby and tractor pull.
Tickets will cost $10 for both events, with a $5 discount for ages 4-9; children 3 and under will get in for free. You can purchase tickets here.
“We made the tickets extremely low cost, and that was because we want to make sure that the community can access it,” Hermens said. “We want families to be able to come.”
Tractor pulls feature tractor operators competing to see who can pull a weighted sled the furthest and fastest before they get bogged down.
Hermens said the pull won’t be the type that looks like it belongs “in monster truck rallies.”
“You might see the local farmer out there with his tractor he just pulled off the field,” she said. “We’re really trying to vibe to local, but you’re going to watch them pulling the weights and seeing how far they can go.”
In the demolition derby, modified combine harvesters run into each other in an attempt to disable opponents or push the other out of a circle. Hermens said there are eight competitors currently signed up.
“It’s like combines wrestling,” she said. “Four at a time, if we have all eight. And you’re going to get down to one winner – either the only one left running or the only one that doesn’t get pushed out of the ring.”
According to Hermens, the Tangent Harvest Festival started in 1938, but had a hiatus from 2013-22. The city doesn’t have a tax base to fund the festival, and there weren’t enough volunteers to make it work.
However, when community members started Tangent Together three years ago, the organization brought the festival back.
“The harvest festival was the biggest thing, you know, in reviving that and bringing it back, because a town having some type of festival or fair is really a huge part of bringing the community together,” Hermens said. “You want those ties that pull you together.”
She added that the proceeds from past festivals went into a scholarship fund for local students going to college, and Tangent Together plans to restart it with profits from the 2025 event.
“All of the ticket sales from the derby will go straight into the endowment fund, and we should be able to go live with the scholarships,” she said. The fund will be for both college and trade school attendees.
The pancake breakfast, hosted by the Tangent Rural Fire District, will have a requested donation but no hard fee. A local high school group will be charging $5 for festival parking.
Hermens recommended people park before 9 a.m. or after 10:45 a.m. as sections of Blackberry Lane, Tangent Drive, Garden Lane, Birdfoot Drive and Old Church Road will be temporarily closed for the community parade route.
Hermens said those with questions or looking to volunteer can email [email protected]. You can learn more about Tangent Together on the organization’s website here.
