Sunflower Festival billed for second year at Cooke County Fairgrounds

Gainesville's Sunflower Festival was advertised for two days at Cooke County Fairgrounds, Sept. 26 and 27. The city's official community calendar lists the September event as the festival's second annual edition.

Tami's Tasty Treats, a vendor taking part in the festival, posted the schedule on its events page. The listing gave hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both days at the fairgrounds.

GvilleTX could not confirm from a primary source who first proposed the festival. The newsroom also could not check any growth since the first year, because it found no primary-source record of the inaugural event. No primary source confirmed that festival money goes to local nonprofits.

Fall fundraisers have deep roots in Gainesville. St. Mary's School calls its Fall Festival a tradition of more than 40 years, and the school says the proceeds pay for its programs. St. Mary's scheduled its 2025 festival for Sept. 27 and 28. That is almost the same late-September weekend the Sunflower Festival chose this year.

One county over, a larger fall event is next. The Whitesboro Chamber advertises its 2026 Peanut Festival for Oct. 17. The chamber promises more than 300 booths and displays. Admission is free, and so is the park-and-ride service. For groups weighing the cost of a booth, the chamber's 2025 vendor application charged nonprofits $80 for a basic 10-by-10-foot space without electricity.

National survey data points to smaller crowds at fairs of this kind. The National Endowment for the Arts reports that the share of American adults who went to a craft fair or visual arts festival dropped from about 24% in 2017 to about 17% in 2022. The agency's survey does not measure the Gainesville festival.