Organizers speak on 27th Annual TN Soybean Festival

MARTIN, Tenn. — The 27th Tennessee Soybean Festival celebrated its third day of festivities Monday.

“When we came up what to do with the festival 27 years ago and knowing that agriculture plays such a big role in our lives here, then the soybean seemed to be a natural thing,” said David Belote, Executive Director of Tennessee Soybean Festival.

Organizers with the Soybean Festival say it means a lot to them and also the community.

“This festival is very special to me. I grew up here , I grew up going to this festival, I’ve seen how much it’s grown in the past 27 years and how much it means to everybody else to have a sense of community and have a sense of a reason to come home and gather and see people who they grew up with and see how much our town has changed. That’s the amazing aspect for me,” said Suzanne Harper, Soybean Planning Committee of the City of Martin.

This year, the festival came with a couple of new attractions.

“We’re on our brand new beautiful stage that was constructed over the past year and this will be the first event that will be on the stage here and we’re very very proud of this,” said Belote.

Since the theme of the day was Disney, it was only fair to perform songs from classic movies from a tribute band.

“At first it was like the bean festival and I was like but what kind of beans? Baked beans? And then I heard it was soybeans. Some of us in the band are vegetarian so I was like, ‘oh wow there’s a Soybean Festival. Absolutely, yes let’s do this’, so we’re going to come and rock it,” said Alexis Pabini, Band Leader of The Little Mermen.

The Tennessee Soybean Festival will run until Sunday, September 12.

Rock superstar Rick Springfield headlines Thursday night and Brett Michaels, Saturday night.

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