The first one goes up over the water a little after dark, and you feel it in your chest. It’s July at the Fireworks over the Lake Freedom Festival, and Sullivan County Park & Lake has more where that came from. Remember cruising around like we did back in high school? That’s what our Cruise the Square event is all about. After that comes the Sullivan County Rotary Corn Festival with carnival rides, concerts, and even a bed race. Then Halloween on the Square with all the candy you can carry plus a costume contest, and in December comes Christmas on the Square with carriage rides, hot chocolate, Santa, and a big parade. Find your season below and come see us.
YOUR FESTIVAL WEEKEND AWAITS
Four Seasons Worth Driving For
Spring Events
Sullivan County Park & Lake gets its boats back in the spring, and the crappie are biting before anything else. Then the Memorial Day Tribute Festival takes over the park, with horse and garden tractor pulls, a decorated golf cart parade, and a band at the Hinesley Pavilion. Bring the camper and stay the weekend.
Summer Events
Summer is ski boats at Sullivan County Park & Lake. In June the Shifters Car Club puts on the Be There or Be Square car show in downtown Sullivan, with the classics and muscle cars lined up around the courthouse, the owners right there beside them, a DJ, a silent auction, and something to eat. It’s free. July brings the Fireworks over the Lake Freedom Festival, with bands, food, and the big show right over the water after dark. In August the Rat Rod Rust Rash car show rolls into Merom Camp and Retreat Center with rat bikes, tractors, Radio Flyer wagons, customs, antiques, and classics. Then the Labor Day Festival does it all again at the lake, with K-9 demonstrations, bounce houses, and music at the pavilion. And one Saturday night at the end of summer, Cruise the Square brings everybody downtown for a night of cruising the square in Sullivan like the old days, windows down and the radio up, with music, food trucks, and a burnout contest in front of the police station to top it off.
Fall Events
The Corn Festival kicks off fall on the downtown Sullivan square. Carnival rides, food tents and a beer tent, concerts every night on the Central Plaza lawn, a turtle derby, a bed race, and a parade down Section Street. Then it’s the Dugger Coal Festival with special dinners, a cruise-in of classic cars and pickups, and the Dugger Coal Museum open every day of it. In October the kids get two Halloweens. First the Trunk-or-Treat Halloween Spooktacular, with candy up and down the campground roads at Sullivan County Park & Lake, and then Halloween on the Square in Sullivan with a costume parade around the courthouse and hot food off the fire department’s grill at City Hall.
Winter Events
December is Christmas on the Square in Sullivan. The lights come on downtown, the stores have their Christmas specials out, and the Heart of Sullivan volunteers put on the whole thing, carriages and Santa and all. Then it turns cold for real and the bald eagles show up on the Wabash, forty on a good morning if you’re lucky. That’s worth the cold.
