The weekend event will feature carnival rides, hometown booths, a craft show, the popular car show, entertainment on the Main Stage in Kellogg Park, a huge Bingo game, the traditional Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast, the Party Tent and much more along with the Sunday Rotary Chicken Barbeque. Attractions and events differ each day, organizers said, and there is a complete schedule available on the website and a printed Fall Festival guide available at no cost throughout the community.
Each and every vendor or attraction at the event must be sponsored by a non-profit community entity, ensuring that the event is charity driven and a proven boost to civic contributions to various community efforts. Several of the service clubs involved provide scholarships to local students and all fund local charitable and civic efforts.
Organizers expect about 20,000 visitors to the community during the weekend and the most important piece of advice city officials offer regarding the event is the same every year: Use the free shuttle service provided by Praise Community Church.
The church has been offering the free service for the festival for several years and more and more festival visitors are discovering just how convenient and comfortable the shuttles are. Qualified drivers deliver passengers from the large church parking lot at 45000 North Territorial Road to the center of the fun near Plymouth City Hall. The drivers are all experienced volunteers who are familiar with the local traffic patterns and area. The late-model vans are also air conditioned and provide ample room for any souvenirs acquired during the visit.
The church is located about a quarter mile west of Sheldon Road on North Territorial and is an easy find and quick shuttle ride to and from downtown Plymouth. The vans begin operating from the church about a half hour before the festival opens each day and continue transporting passengers until about a half hour after the event closes, or longer if necessary. Church officials stressed that they have never left anyone behind.
The vans leave the church in about half-hour intervals, or more often if there are passengers waiting. “Anybody who shows up for a ride gets one,” officials stressed. Passengers can wait in the air-conditioned church building should the weekend include some of the high temperatures seen earlier this summer.
The shuttle ride and parking are both free. City officials noted that in all the years the church has been offering the shuttle service, there have been no reported problems.
“It's a great convenience and helps alleviate some of the traffic parking situations downtown during the weekend,” organizers said.
