The Milton Harvest Festival opens its 42nd year with the Tomato Bowl football game on Friday night at Milton Alumni Football Stadium.

The event continues with arts, crafts, food and fun on Saturday, September 8th and the 15th as Broadway and Bound avenues, in downtown Milton, are closed for the events.

The Festival closes on September 15th, when the Harvest Festival parade, starting at 1 p.m., travels Front Street.

The Milton Harvest Festival started as a three day — Thursday, Friday, Saturday — event in 1977 and grew into the week plus festival. There was no parade the first year, but 1978 marked the start of parades, with Hector Boiardi as Grand Marshall.

The Festival started as the Milton Tomato Puree Harvest Festival, because the local Chef Boyardee plant used the locally grown tomatoes for its sauce.

Several years later, they started getting tomato puree from the West Coast and the word Tomato was dropped from the Festival.

The 42nd Festival will be fun for young and old. Complete information at miltonharvestfestival.com.