Antrim’s 21st annual Home and Harvest Festival kicks off with the “Nerf and Turf” event Friday night, Sept. 20, at Shea Field, next to Great Brook Middle School.

Nerf and Turf runs from 5 to 9 p.m., with events for all ages, including lightsaber dueling, costumed superheroes, face-painting, a free ice cream social and hamburgers, hot dogs and popcorn available for purchase. The evening also includes a cornhole tournament.

Activities are free of charge.

“We has 500 kids come last year, and it was an absolute blast,” said organizer John Anderson. “People have asked me if we can bring Nerf and Turf to their event, or take it on the road. Someone asked me to bring it up to Maine! It’s definitely catching on in the area.”

“Nerf and Turf is the single largest event for kids in Antrim and all the surrounding towns. It’s extraordinary to see,” said Mark Murdough, who founded the event with Anderson six years ago.

Anderson and Murdough first met as 10th-graders on a school bus in Hillsborough, and later reconnected as dads and community volunteers in Antrim. Both raised their families in Antrim, and both serve on the Planning Board.

Nerf and Turf came about partly as a result of the closure of big-box toy retailer Toys “R” Us.

“We’d been involved in Home and Harvest, and we were looking for something new for kids and teens,” Anderson recalled. “And then Toys ‘R’ Us was going out of business, so we literally went and bought out their entire stock of Nerf blasters.”

Murdough and Anderson partner with multiple Antrim organizations to pull off Nerf and Turf, including The Grapevine and Avenue A Teen Center, the Lions Club and VFW Post 8268. The Lions Club runs a hot dog and hamburger table, and the VFW sells popcorn.

“Jacqueline Roland from Avenue A makes these awesome noodle lightsabers for the lightsaber battle, and (Patrick) Cogan from the middle school brings Rosie the therapy dog,” Anderson said. “The community is all in.”

Nerf and Turf is a family affair; Anderson’s daughter brings her whole field hockey team from New England College to play and volunteer, and Murdough’s son runs a “Nerf gun repair station.”

Murdough and Anderson rely on dozens of volunteers for setup and teardown. In preparation for the event, volunteers fence off the entire field and line it with blue barrels, which are donated by the Town of Peterborough.

“It’s a huge push to get it all set up by 5:30. Our wives are out there, all our volunteers are out there nonstop until 9 p.m. I don’t even want to move the next day,” Anderson says. “Last year, we did capture the flag and it was just nonstop and people loved it.”

Murdough says the event is safe and engaging for family members of all ages.

“This is a great family event. We are out there under the lights. We have the field totally fenced in. We have the police out there. We have the capacity to grow; we hope we will get people from more towns this year,” Murdough said.

Murdough noted that safety is a primary concern.

“We use safety glasses. We use vests. We don’t use any hard tipped darts, and we are very careful about safety. Nerf and Turf is totally family friendly and fun. We monitor it, and we make sure little kids can be out there on their own and be safe,” Murdough said.

“It is a really good time,” Anderson said.

For information about the 2024 Antrim Home and Harvest Festival, go to facebook.com/HomeAndHarvest.