Decatur County Indiana Tree City Fall Festival
Every September, downtown Greensburg wraps its most famous landmark in a weekend of music, food and pageantry. The Decatur County Courthouse, known far beyond Indiana for the tree growing out of its tower, stands at the centre of the Tree City Fall Festival, and the celebration spreads across the historic square around it. Greensburg serves as the seat of Decatur County, and for one long weekend the county seat becomes a fairground, with vendor rows, a parade, a memorial fun run and a crowning ceremony all sharing the same few blocks.
The festival is organised by the Tree City Fall Festival committee, a volunteer body whose own history reaches back to the first edition in 1979. The 2026 gathering runs on Friday, September 18 and Saturday, September 19, falling on the third weekend of the month. A listing layer gives admission as free, so the square is open to anyone who wants to wander in, and the programme stretches from early morning vendor sales to Friday evening ceremonies under the lights.
About the Tree City Fall Festival
The Tree City Fall Festival belongs to Greensburg in a literal sense, because its grounds are the streets and square surrounding the Decatur County Courthouse. Visitors come partly for the programme and partly for the setting, since the courthouse tower carries a living tree that has made the building one of the most photographed small town landmarks in the state. The festival takes its name from that tree, and the square below it fills with food trucks, craft booths and crowds each fall.
A dedicated committee runs the event rather than a city department. The organiser’s history page records that the committee incorporated and received designation as a nonprofit corporation in 2006, at which point it also formed a Board of Directors to steer the festival. That same history page lists the general chairmen and board presidents by term, running in an unbroken line from 1979 onward, which gives the festival a documented chain of local leadership across more than four decades.
Most activity stays on the downtown square, although the organiser’s 2026 schedule places the classic car show in a funeral home parking lot, a practical overflow choice for a display that needs long rows of open pavement. Everything else, from the main stage to the pageant crowning, stays within sight of the courthouse tower.
For a useful comparison, see the Dearborn County Indiana Aurora Farmers Fair Festival for another county festival.
Quick Facts
| Fact | Detail |
| Festival name | Tree City Fall Festival |
| Town | Greensburg, Indiana |
| County | Decatur County |
| County seat | Greensburg is the seat of Decatur County |
| Setting | Historic downtown square around the Decatur County Courthouse |
| Organiser | Tree City Fall Festival committee |
| First held | 1979 |
| Timing | Third weekend in September |
| 2026 dates | Friday, September 18 and Saturday, September 19, 2026 |
| Admission | Free, according to a listing layer |
History of the Tree City Fall Festival
The idea arrived home from a road trip. The organiser’s own history page states that in 1978 David Begley, Art Powers and Herb Kohler travelled to the Versailles Pumpkin Show, looked at what that older Ripley County celebration had built, and brought the inspiration back to Greensburg. The Tree City Fall Festival began the next year, in 1979, and the first edition featured the Hoxie Brothers Circus as its headline attraction. A local travel layer independently gives 1979 as the year the festival first occurred, so the founding date rests on more than the committee’s memory alone.
The young festival clearly found an audience, because its footprint kept stretching. The organiser’s history page notes that the event ran for ten days in 1987, then seven days in 1988, before settling to four days from 1989 and three days from 1998. That arc tells its own story about small town celebrations of the era, which often grew longer before organisers trimmed them back to the busiest days.
Two names recur through the later history as memorials. Herb Kohler, one of the three men who imported the idea from Versailles, died in 1985, and the festival parade now carries his name as the Herb Kohler Memorial Parade. The Saturday morning run is the Caleb Brown Memorial 5K, giving the weekend a second act of remembrance. The 2024 edition, recapped in detail on the organiser’s history page, followed the pattern visitors still see, with royalty crowned on Friday evening and the run, the car show and the parade all landing on Saturday.
What to Expect
Greensburg’s square starts filling early. The organiser’s schedule for 2026 puts more than one hundred sixty vendors, food trucks, artists, authors and craftsmen on the ground all day from eight in the morning, so the first hours of each day belong to browsing, eating and watching the downtown blocks turn into an open air market.
Friday evening belongs to ceremony. Opening ceremonies lead into the royalty pageant crowning, and the Honda Main Stage hosts live music, with The Morgan After Band and The Motown Sounds of Touch performing on Friday. Saturday’s stage schedule brings Rusty Bladen, a Van Halen tribute act and the Hoosier Swing Band at midday, so the music runs from rock to swing across the weekend.
Saturday morning is the busiest stretch of the festival. The Caleb Brown Memorial 5K sets off first, the classic car show lines up its rows of polished chrome, and the Herb Kohler Memorial Parade steps off at ten in the morning. The 2026 parade theme is printed as “Stars, Stripes, and Small Towns – Celebrating 250 Years”, a patriotic nod that matches a Saturday built around small town pride. A police K-9 exhibition and a pet costume contest round out the family side of the programme, giving children and dog lovers their own scheduled moments between the bigger set pieces.
Planning Your Visit
The third weekend in September is the anchor, and the 2026 edition confirms the pattern with its Friday and Saturday dates. Because a listing layer gives admission as free and tickets at zero, visitors can treat the square as open ground, drifting in and out between the downtown shops and the vendor rows without planning around a gate. No credible layer publishes prices for individual components such as pageant entries or run registration, so anyone entering those should expect to confirm the details with the committee rather than rely on posted figures.
Timing matters more than tickets here. Vendor rows open at eight in the morning, and Saturday packs the memorial run, the car show and a ten o’clock parade into a single morning, so arriving early on Saturday secures the full sequence. Friday suits visitors who prefer the ceremonial side, since the crowning and the opening ceremonies happen that evening, while the midday Saturday stage sets reward anyone who stays through the afternoon.
Layers describing the festival publish no attendance figure at all, and the vendor count of more than one hundred sixty describes sellers rather than spectators. Crowds are therefore hard to predict from the written record, and planning around the clock instead of around expected crowd sizes is the sensible approach.
The two days reward different strategies. Friday carries fewer competing events, which makes it the better day for unhurried browsing among the authors, artists and craftsmen before the evening ceremonies gather everyone toward the square. Saturday concentrates the spectacle, so visitors with only one day should choose Saturday and accept the early start it demands, while those staying for both days can let Friday breathe and save their energy for the parade morning.
A Sample Weekend at the Festival
Friday works best as an arrival day. Reach the square in the late afternoon, walk the vendor rows while the light is still good, and let the food trucks handle supper before the opening ceremonies begin. Stay for the royalty pageant crowning, then close the evening with the Friday sets on the main stage.
Saturday rewards an early start. Breakfast near the square puts you in place for the memorial run, after which the classic car show offers an easy hour of wandering before the parade. Take up a spot along the route before ten in the morning for the Herb Kohler Memorial Parade, then drift back to the stage for the midday swing band and the afternoon tribute performance. The pet costume contest and the K-9 exhibition fill the gaps for families, and a final pass through the craft booths ends the weekend before the drive home.
How the Tree City Fall Festival Compares
The most natural comparison is the event that inspired it. The Versailles Pumpkin Show, held in neighbouring Ripley County, is the older celebration, and Greensburg’s founders borrowed its example in 1978 before building something of their own around a courthouse square rather than a pumpkin theme. The two festivals remain separate events in separate counties, linked by origin rather than by organisation.
The Decatur County 4-H Fair is a different creature again. It takes place in July at the fairgrounds, following the agricultural fair model of livestock, exhibits and midway ground, while the Tree City Fall Festival is a downtown street celebration staged in September around a landmark building. A visitor who attends both would see two distinct versions of Decatur County celebration, one rooted in the county’s farming calendar and the other in its civic square, separated by two months and by entirely different ground. Greensburg also promotes a dining feature called Taste of Tree City through its tourism channels, but that is a restaurant promotion rather than a festival, and it should not be confused with the September weekend on the square.
A Visitor Checklist
- Comfortable walking shoes for a full day on downtown pavement
- A light jacket for Friday evening ceremonies after sunset
- Cash or cards for food trucks, craft booths and vendor rows
- A camera for the tree growing from the courthouse tower
- An early Saturday arrival to catch the run, the car show and the parade in sequence
- A lead and a costume if your dog is entering the pet costume contest
- Sunscreen and water for the midday Saturday stage sets
- Room in the car for purchases from more than one hundred sixty vendors
Beyond the Festival
The courthouse itself is the obvious companion attraction, and it costs nothing to appreciate. Even visitors who come purely for the music tend to spend time studying the tower, where the famous tree continues to grow out of the roofline in defiance of ordinary botany. The historic downtown square rewards slow wandering between programme items, with the festival blocks doubling as the town’s everyday commercial heart.
Visitors staying longer can also look into Greensburg’s dining scene, which county tourism promoted in 2026 through the Taste of Tree City feature. That promotion is a separate restaurant showcase rather than part of the festival programme, but it points newcomers toward local tables once the food trucks close. Anyone planning a return trip in a different season should note that the county fairgrounds hosts the separate 4-H Fair in July, giving Decatur County a second, quite different gathering on the calendar.
Why the Tree City Fall Festival Matters
Small town festivals survive on continuity, and this one documents its own unusually well. The committee lists its chairmen and presidents term by term back to 1979, which means the festival’s leadership story is a matter of record rather than folklore. When a celebration can name every person who has steered it across four decades, it has become part of a town’s civic memory.
The memorial names deepen that role. A parade honouring a founder who died in 1985 and a run carrying Caleb Brown’s name turn the weekend into an act of remembrance as well as entertainment, binding new visitors to people they never met. Layered over all of it is the setting itself, a courthouse square where a tree grows from a tower, giving Greensburg a symbol no marketing department could invent. The festival matters because it keeps that symbol at the centre of the town’s shared calendar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Tree City Fall Festival charge anything at the gate?
A listing layer states plainly that admission is free and shows tickets priced at zero, and no credible layer publishes any gate charge for the festival. Individual components are a separate matter, since the layers read do not publish entry figures for things like the pageant or the memorial run.
What grows out of the Decatur County Courthouse tower?
A tree grows directly from the courthouse tower in Greensburg, and it is the landmark that made the building famous well beyond Decatur County. The festival takes its Tree City name from that sight, and the square beneath the tower is where the celebration unfolds each September.
Which local committee keeps the festival running?
The Tree City Fall Festival committee runs the event. Its history page records that the committee became a nonprofit corporation in 2006 and formed a Board of Directors, and it lists the general chairmen and board presidents by term all the way back to the first festival in 1979.
Which parts of the weekend carry memorial names?
Two centrepiece events honour men connected to the festival. The Herb Kohler Memorial Parade remembers one of the three founders, who died in 1985, while the Caleb Brown Memorial 5K opens the Saturday programme as a memorial run through the morning schedule.
What to Expect From the Next Decatur County Indiana Tree City Fall Festival
How often is Decatur County Indiana Tree City Fall Festival held?
The festival returns every autumn on the third weekend in September, following a rhythm it has kept through many editions. Its length has varied across the decades, but the September placement has stayed constant.
When is the next Decatur County Indiana Tree City Fall Festival?
Following the 2026 edition on Friday, September 18 and Saturday, September 19, the next gathering is expected to follow the same third weekend of September pattern. The committee publishes its schedule ahead of the weekend, and the county visitors commission agenda listed the 2026 dates in its September business.
Will the dates change?
The weekend placement has been steady, although the festival’s shape has shifted before, shrinking from ten days in 1987 to four days from 1989 and three days from 1998. Exact dates for each edition rest with the committee, so checking the published schedule for the year you plan to attend remains worthwhile.
Closing Thoughts
The Tree City Fall Festival is Greensburg’s signature weekend, built by volunteers, anchored to a courthouse square and shaded, at least in spirit, by the most famous tree in Indiana local government. It offers free admission, a parade with a memorial name, a main stage that swings from Motown to rock, and more vendor rows than a single morning can cover. For a town that borrowed the idea from a neighbour’s pumpkin show in 1978 and then ran with it for decades, the festival stands as proof that a borrowed idea, tended carefully, can become a hometown institution.
