PENDLETON — This year’s Fall Festival and Heritage Fair — a pair of celebrations scheduled for Friday, Sept. 6, and Saturday, Sept. 7 — are being organized by new people who promise to live up to the expectations of local fairgoers.
Fall Festival, which is organized by the Pendleton Business Association and takes place downtown on Pendleton Avenue and State Street, will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.
According to event coordinator Lori Anson, who’s running the show for her first time, there will be many of the usual activities for children and adults, as well as shopping and food options.
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There will be a Kid Zone with inflatables, a selfie area and games provided by Pendleton Christian Church.
There also will be antique fire truck rides offered by Pendleton Fire Department from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Music will be provided by WEEM-FM, the Pendleton Heights High School radio station.
There is no cost for any of the activities.
Shopping, which has always been a big part of the event, will be available at downtown businesses — many of which traditionally set up tables on the sidewalks — as well as “a variety of vendors,” Anson said.
Anson said there will be about 30 vendors selling their wares; food vendors also will provide some classics, including barbecue, kettle corn, pizza and desserts.
People might want to watch for businesses that have decorated for fall, as Anson said there is a contest going on with three Visa gift cards up for grabs. She said she and a couple of other people will roam the streets assessing those efforts and picking the winners.
Heritage Fair
Heading up Pendleton Avenue and into Falls Park, one will find the site of the Heritage Fair, which will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days.
The event — started almost 50 years ago by Pendleton’s Century and a Half Club as a legacy project of the town’s sesquicentennial celebrations — will be run for the first time this year by the new Friends of Falls Park organization.
“We were honored that they (the Century and Half Club) offered it to us,” event coordinator and Friends board member Jeanette Isbell said. “We just hope to do as good a job with it as they did.”
Isbell said there will be about 100 vendors set up in the park near the Community Building, offering a wide variety of goods for sale.
There will be more than a dozen food vendors among them.
“There will be plenty to eat,” she said.
With it being the Friends’ first year running the event, things will be mostly the same as they’ve been in years past, Isbell said.
The fair this year does have longer hours, and next year the Friends will consider adding additional activities.
“We’re open to all kinds of suggestions that people might have,” Isbell said, noting there will be suggestion forms available during this year’s event.
The goal would be to make improvements where possible “but still honor what the Century and a Half Club has done all these years.”
Proceeds from the Heritage Fair will benefit Falls Park.
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Other local activities:
Quilts in the Park — 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 5-7 and 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 8, at Pendleton Historical Museum, Falls Park
Sigma Phi Gamma Chicken Noodle Dinner — 10 a.m. until food is gone, Friday, Sept. 6, at the Community Building in Falls Park. Meal costs $8 and includes homemade chicken noodles, green beans, mashed potatoes, roll, dessert and drinks.
2019 South Madison Visual Art Show reception — 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, at Gallery 119, 119 W. State St. There will be hors d’oeuvres, and people will have a chance to view the show and meet artists.
Friends of the Pendleton Community Public Library Lucky Duck Race — 12:30 to 3 p.m. (race at 2 p.m.) Saturday, Sept. 7, near the falls in Falls Park
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