Upstate Fall Festival gives back to kids in need

CLINTON, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - A hidden gem in Laurens County-- LushAcres is open year-round, the farm offers a shopping market, park and a walking path. Every Friday and Saturday in October, they host a special festival.

“It was so great seeing families just coming and enjoying the farm, just being together and making memories together,” said Kurt Fuhrman, the farm’s agritourism coordinator.

Located in Clinton, you’ll find LushAcres Farm celebrating their annual Fall Festival.

Fuhrman says it’s a spot seeing a lot of growth. Just two years ago, it was all a field.

“[Now] we’ve got our all-new barn yard animal experience; we’ve got a bigger playground that’s built out,” Furhman explained. “We have our corn cannons that are on our brand new 1,600 square-foot overlook deck.”

The main attraction--their corn maze. This year’s maze is just over a mile long, takes about 40 minutes to get through and pays tribute to the farm’s recent addition of honeybees.

“We’ve got honeycombs, a honey pot, a couple bees, LushAcres Farm and then a beehive as well,” said farm director Jacob Koch of the maze’s design.

For those thinking corn mazes are just for kids, LushAcres says think again.

“We are going to do an after-dark corn maze and it is very dark out here and everyone will just be supplied with a low wattage flashlight and they can try their way through,” Furhman said.

How do you create a corn maze? Just ask farm director Jacob Koch. He plants the corn each August and uses two programs to design it.

“Then we put it back into a GPS monitor, hook it up to a lawn mower and we go out there,” Koch added. “At that point, it’s just a video game. Just start driving around and tracing the pathways.”

Last year, the Fall Festival saw about 1,500 visitors. This year, they’re expecting more.

The farm is a part of Thornwell-- a ministry dedicated to preventing child abuse and reuniting families. All funds from the festival go right back to the non-profit.

“Our goal and mission are to bring awareness to that program as well as generating revenue that can help support all the programs,” Furhman said. “We’ve been really working to get our name out there and people are still discovering us even through our second season here.”

Punch cards for the event cost $10 which can get you into the corn maze and other activities.

To learn more about the Fall Festival, click here.

To learn more about Thornwell, click here.

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