Fall is for festivals
Festivals are abundant throughout the Miami Valley this time of year, and one of the more popular ones is the Vandalia Fall Festival. This is the 6th year for the event, held at the Vandalia Sports Complex on Stonequarry Road, and each year the crowd grows. One thing that’s always welcome this time of year is an excuse to feature seasonal delights like pumpkins, hayrides, corn and cider.
The Gazette recently spoke with Sara Moyer, Recreation Coordinator for Vandalia Parks and Recreation. “It seems to keep growing in attendance every single year, and it’s turning into one of our bigger events. We get a good turnout for Halloween Fest, but we get a bigger turnout for the Fall Festival. For this event, we’ll see well over 2000 people come out throughout the day.”
The Fall Festival began as a smaller event, only about three hours when it first started, but it was so popular that each year, the department kept adding to it. It was originally planned in response to the lifting of COVID public gathering restrictions. Before that, the Parks and Rec Department sponsored recreation-based fall activities, but not really a family-type festival. That changed after the quarantine, and it became more of an activity that brought the community together.
“We’ll have a pumpkin patch where kids can pick their own pumpkins and it will be open until we run out of pumpkins,” Moyer said. “There will also be hayrides, inflatables for the kids to play on, and a corn pit.”
If you’re not sure what a corn pit is, imagine a big sandbox, filled with corn kernels that kids play in, often for a long time. “There are some kids who’ll sit in the corn pit for hours, and the parents can’t get them out of there. They love it.”
Refreshment options will cover the gamut of festival comfort food. “We actually had a lot of food vendor interest this year. We’ll have a little bit of everything, like burgers, a lobster truck, Kona Ice, Kettle Korn, a taco truck, pizza, and cotton candy, among other items. We’ll also have over 25 craft vendors, selling everything from crafts to baked goods and dog-related merchandise.”
One thing that sets the Fall Festival apart from Vandalia’s other gatherings is the entertainment attractions. “We will have live music on our stage by an ‘80s band called Retribution. They’ll be performing from 1-4 p.m. I think the live music is always a hit, and we change our band from year to year. We’ll also have cow petting, face painting, and a balloon artist. People like the fall inflatables for the kids to play in. We’ll have 10-15 different activity stations set up.”
Rain or shine, the Fall Festival is all about community. “We get tremendous support from the community, and they come back year to year,” Moyer said. “We really like our Fall Festival because it helps us kick off the fall season, and at this specific event we have something for everyone. Come out and bring your friends and family!”
The Vandalia Fall Festival will be held on October 10 from 12:00 – 5:00 p.m. at the Vandalia Sports Complex, 1111 Stonequarry Rd, Dayton. The Fall Festival is a pet-friendly event. For more information, please visit their Facebook page or vandaliaohio.org.
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