The historic Buttercup Festival returned to downtown Nolensville the first weekend in May, filling the streets of the small town with sunshine and smiles as neighbors, community members and visitors enjoyed a day of community involvement.
“The festival is important for a town like Nolansville because of the small town charm,” Nolansville County Commissioner Josh Streufert tells Williamson Scene. “Part of our tagline we’ve used in the past is ‘Small town, big heart.’ I think it’s great to allow everyone to come together and see what we’re doing as a town. The festival gives us an opportunity to see what our vendors, businesses and community activist groups do for us.”
As a celebration of local history, art, food, music and more, the Buttercup Festival creates a space for people of all ages to get out and enjoy the company of one another. Over 140 vendors set up around the festival, from church bake sales selling coconut cake by the pound to the Nolensville fire department giving out popcorn and red plastic fireman hats to kids on the bouncy castles. There was no shortage of sweet treats, as many of the vendors were local bakers from around Nolensville sharing recipes and baked goods with their community.
One of the highlights of the festival is the Miss Buttercup Pageant, a long-standing tradition in Nolensville.
The pageant is organized into five categories based on age, with Konnelly Zeringue named Miss Buttercup Princess, Anna Gallik named Little Miss Buttercup, Tiya Banala named Miss Pre-Teen Buttercup, Oorvi Banala named Miss Buttercup Teen and Madison McBride named Miss Buttercup.
“We ran five age categories this year, and we had 21 contestants among those five categories,” Streufert says. “We get to celebrate our girls and teach them valuable skills like how to speak in public.”
This year, the Buttercup Festival hosted a slew of live artists, from nationally touring musicians to a lengthy list of local artists picking guitars and playing original tunes all throughout the festival. Lael Eccard, local musician and teacher, played a huge role in coordinating the music for the event. In his day-to-day life, Eccard teaches in-home lessons for kids in the Middle Tennessee area.
Out of all his students, 80 percent live in Nolensville.
“I want to show kids what’s possible, no matter what age they are,” Eccard says. “I remember that I fell in love with playing music because my dad was a drummer. He played a snare solo in a big school assembly when I was in the second grade, and I still remember the roar of the applause when he was done. It was in that instance that I fell in love with music, and I want to give that to other kids, too.”
Apart from running and operating all four stages at the Buttercup Festival, Eccard and DPV set up a booth close to the main stage where kids could come and play around with a few select instruments. The idea is to get kids in Nolensville excited about playing instruments through the opportunity to play around with musical instruments they might have never seen before.
“It’s like an instrument petting zoo,” Eccard says. “We’ve got an electric drum set, an electric bass and an electric keyboard. The kids come up and play any of the instruments, and we’re offering parents a free introductory lesson.”
Despite the festival almost ending in 2025 amongst other issues like weather, the Buttercup Festival continues to draw large crowds to the Nolensville Historic District as locals proceed to support the event.