Vandalia Hosts 4th Annual Fall Festival
Fall and pumpkin seasons seem to go together like campfires and hot cider. One thing that’s always welcome this time of year is a festival featuring seasonal delights like hayrides, S’mores, corn mazes, and trick-or-treating. Think of it as one last outdoor activity before winter settles in over the Miami Valley.
The city of Vandalia is holding its annual Fall Festival on Saturday, October 12. The family-friendly event will take place at the Vandalia Sports Complex, 1111 Stonequarry Road, from noon to 6:00 PM. The Tippecanoe Gazette recently spoke with Aaron Messenger, the city's Recreation Facility Manager.
“This is our fourth year for the Fall Festival,” he said. “It began as a smaller event, only three hours when we first started, but we kept adding to it and watching it grow.” He pointed out that the festival was in response to the lifting of Covid public gathering restrictions three years ago. “In the past, we used to have some type of Fall activity, but there just wasn’t a whole lot to do. A lot of activities were recreation-based, but to me, that wasn’t really a family-type festival. We wanted to do something to bring the community together after the quarantine. Now, it’s fully an outdoor event.”
This year’s activities will include hayrides, live music, food trucks, merchandise vendors, a pumpkin patch, and a corn pit. Not sure what a corn pit is? Neither was I.
“Imagine a big sandbox filled with corn kernels, and the kids jump in and play in it,” Messenger explained. “They love it. There’ll be kids in there for the whole six hours. We’ll also have inflatables, S’mores making, face painting, balloon twisting, and a petting zoo. Local service groups and churches will have games like cornhole and other yard-type games. We plan on having 19 different activity stations.”
Two popular local groups will provide live music. The FIVE Band will play at 12:30 p.m., and Adelee & Gentry will take the stage at 3:30 p.m. In addition to craft vendors, there will be a variety of food trucks offering everything from ice cream and coffee to pizza and burgers.
“We have around forty vendors total, usually thirty for arts and crafts and baked items, and ten food trucks,” Messenger said. “I keep it low so they can maximize their profit. There will be a lot of different activities available. People can get food, listen to music, hang out, and have a good time.”
Messenger and his staff expect three- to four-thousand people to attend, as long as the weather cooperates. “These past two years, we’ve been getting a lot of rain and storms. Hopefully, the mild weather will continue until October 12th, but it is what it is. Worrying about the weather is my most stressful part of the job.”
Rain or shine, the Fall Festival is all about community. “To me, it’s really about bringing the community together, especially coming out of Covid,” Messenger said. “We heard the response from our citizens that they wanted more special events they can bring people out to. We try to have these bigger-scale events so families can come out, meet their friends, have a good time, and just build that sense of community in Vandalia. We’re doing that with activities where everyone can participate, especially kids of all ages. People even bring their dogs out. It’s just a lot of fun through recreation.”
The Vandalia Fall Festival will be held from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 12, at the Vandalia Sports Complex, 1111 Stonequarry Road. Admission is free. For more information, visit their Facebook page or vandaliaohio.org.