{"id":219026,"date":"2026-05-04T10:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219026\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:17:18","slug":"flint-hills-festival-returns-to-downtown-manhattan-saturday-for-family-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219026\/","title":{"rendered":"Flint Hills Festival returns to downtown Manhattan Saturday for family fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

MANHATTAN (KSNT<\/a>) \u2014 Food, music and family fun filled downtown Manhattan as thousands gathered for its 12th annual Flint Hills Festival hosted by the Flint Hills Discovery Center Saturday, May 2.<\/p>\n

Multiple streets, including Poyntz Avenue, were shut down for the free event, allowing more than 50 vendors to line the roadway with everything from candy and burgers to cold snow cones. The festival also featured live music and free admission to the Flint Hills Discovery Center, allowing visitors to explore exhibits and enjoy\u00a0the outdoor celebration.<\/p>\n

Organizers say the event is about more than just entertainment, but about building long-term connections within the community.<\/p>\n

Manhattan organizers participate in \u2018May Day\u2019 protests Friday for workers\u2019 rights <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who come through Manhattan and in our region\u2026 they\u2019re here for school or the military, and so we try to give those individuals a reason to fall in love with this place\u2026 and a reason to make this their permanent home,\u201d said Stephen Bridenstine, director of the Discovery Center. \u201cAnd so we do everything we can to do that, and this festival is part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bridenstine said more than 9,000 people attended the festival in 2025, and organizers worked to bring back the same level of energy and turnout this year.<\/p>\n

With a mix of local vendors, live entertainment and hands-on experiences, the annual event continues to draw both residents and visitors to the heart of Manhattan.<\/p>\n

For more local news,\u00a0click here<\/a>. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our\u00a0mobile app<\/a>\u00a0and by signing up for our\u00a0news email alerts<\/a>. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by\u00a0clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANHATTAN (KSNT) \u2014 Food, music and family fun filled downtown Manhattan as thousands gathered for its 12th annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[86278,32761,6423,86277,75,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-219026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-discovery-center","tag-downtown-manhattan","tag-flint-hills","tag-flint-hills-discovery-center","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}