Since 1982, Harvest Day has brought people from near and far to Inman. Photo courtesy of the Inman Chamber of Commerce.
If you want to see how much the small-town city of Inman has grown and still stayed the same through the last few generations, your best bet is to spend a day enjoying the sights, sounds, tastes, and aromas that will try their best to keep you smiling during this year’s 45th annual Harvest Day celebration.
Set for September 26 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in downtown Inman, Harvest Day will not only feature more than 200 street vendors and 30 downtown businesses, but allow visitors and residents alike to see a city on the move.
“We average about 15,000 people a year to the festival, and block off five or six sections of streets, so it’s all walkable,” said longtime Inman Chamber of Commerce president David Grayshock. “It’s a great way to meet people, socialize, and enjoy the event. And we’ve had people come from as far away as Florida, Texas, Oregon, and California.”
And even farther.
Eastern European couple Dmitriy and Liia Sashchenko not only moved to Inman during the height of COVID and opened their own sweet-shop business, but have come to consider Harvest Day as a personal favorite.
”I’m Russian and my wife Liia is Ukrainian – she came here as a refugee of the Ukrainian war about four years ago, and we look forward to the festival every year,” said Dmitriy Sashchenko. “The selection of the different types of food is all so amazing – We live downtown and can see it all from our porch. And we hope to have a booth there in the near future.”
Grayshock also pointed out that the festival also allows all patrons, especially people who have never been to Inman before, to see the town’s progress, history, and likely future all at once.
For example, city officials have so far, in just 2026 alone, held 13 ribbon cuttings for new business ventures such as Café On Main, Big Head Barkery, Overflow Coffee, The Pocket Park Of Inman, and Spartanburg Charcuterie.
“Our most recent was Downtown Pizza, Hideaways By The Vault, Glow Esthetics, and, Merchants on Main on September 12,” said Robin Bradley, director of Inman chamber membership. “And we’ll have more to come between October and December.”
All of which is a far cry from where the city seemed headed in 2016.
“Ten years ago, Inman was going through a really tough time – there were more empty buildings than occupied,” Grayshock said. “Now we’re a town that’s growing in a lot of progressive ways. And now we have more Inman-ites than ever.”
Only in the last several years or so has the population passed the 3,000 mark – for the first time since Inman’s founding in 1890 – and more people are on the way, not the least of which is due to growth now driven in part by the festival.
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“It takes about 400 man-hours to organize each year, and usually by the end of July, we’re pretty full with all our vendors,” Grayshock said. “We try to have a diversified group – with all hand-made crafts vendors – and we encourage businesses throughout Inman to be open during the day to attract people. So bring the whole family.”
