History of Moscow Festival:

Early in 1986 a group from the Moscow community got together to discuss the possibility of having a one-time festival near the Moscow Covered Bridge to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the bridge. It was decided by the group to have the festival in June that year.

Officers were elected to this "group" (later to be known as the Moscow Covered Bridge Festival Association). Steve Owen was elected President, Vice President was Gene Cramer, Secretary-Treasurer was Virginia Bridges and the assistant Secretary-Treasurer was Marty Cramer.

At the same time that the Moscow group was making plans for their celebration, the Rush County Commissioners were deciding that Rush County didn't need all six of their covered bridges and were making plans to tear down four of these bridges, leaving only the Moscow and nearby Forsythe bridges.

Concerned Rush County citizens were angered by the commissioners' plans so they met and formed Rush County Heritage, Inc. to save the county's historic covered bridges. Heritage met weekly at the county courthouse and started a pension drive that collected over 7,500 signatures of the county's adult population.
Festival President Owen was also on the board of Heritage and together the Festival and Heritage planned to make the Moscow Covered Bridge Festival a big event, attracting attention to the county's fight to save their covered bridges.

Because of the nationwide coverage of the fight to save the bridges, people from all over the country gathered in the small historic village of Moscow for that first ever festival. Helicopters even arrived from Indianapolis with television crews to film a news conference held in front of the bridge as Heritage officers answered questions.

Due to the huge success of that first festival in 1986, the festival group voted to have a second festival the following year. And then a third, a fourth, etc, until it is now an annual event with the planning for the next year's event starting just as soon as the current year's festival ends.

The first few festivals were held on Water Street, which is the main street in Moscow that goes past the covered bridge. As the festival grew from year to year, it outgrew the downtown area and was moved to a 3 ½ acre lot across the road from the Moscow Christian Church. The festival ended up purchasing this land, built twin stages and a festival kitchen.

Leadership has changed over the years with new people getting involved and the older ones either dying or getting burned out. In fact, only one member of the original Festival board remains active today, Don Miller.

The same theme has remained throughout the years, have an annual fun weekend for the community to enjoy. No admission has ever been charged and no huge profits have ever been made. Any profits that are made are used to continue the festival for another year with an annual donation made to the Rush County commissioners to maintain all of the covered bridges in the county.

It should also be pointed out that these are not the same commissioners that were in office in 1986. Those commissioners were either voted out of office or decided not to run again. Today, Rush County has commissioners that not only want to preserve the landmark bridges but have already increased the load limits on three of the bridges.