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The 13th Annual Old Town Fall Festival this Sunday, Oct. 10
This year marks the 13th year for the event that many say is the most popular annual festival in North County.
Once again the Florissant Old Town Partners has teamed up with the City of Florissant , the Missouri Arts Council and the Regional Arts Commission to co-sponsor the Fall Festival on rue St. Francois on Sunday Oct. 10. In the past few years over 35,000 visitors attended the weekend events and sponsors expect an even larger crowd this year.
The Fall Festival kicks off at noon and runs until 5 p.m all along rue St. Francois Street in the heart of Old Town Florissant. This event covers eleven full blocks from Florissant Road down to the St. Ferdinand Shrine and will be blocked off to accommodate the festival.
The street will be filled with activities for everyone with over 150 booths including games to play, sale items, food and beverages. There will old favorites like the Chili Cook-off, the wine garden, pumpkin decorating, silent auction, Kincaid Puppets, jewelry making and entertainment on almost every block.
Fido Follies
Everyone’s Favorite event the Fido Follies returns and will be at a new location at the Government Center at 1055 rue St. Francois at the very top of the street. As always water bowls will be provide on every block so you can bring your dogs (properly licensed and leashed of course) and enter them in to the dog show, we have categories such as smallest dog, best kisser, best costume, best trick and largest dog to name a few.
Art Festival
The Art Festival will be held down by the Shrine, sponsored by St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley continues to grow with exhibits by artists, art activities and demonstrations through out the day.
This year the children’s corner returns with free activities including chalking, painting and collage. The Northern Arts Council and the Women’s Caucus for Art will also showcase work by local artists. KCFV from Florissant Valley will be broadcasting live from the festival throughout the day. While you are visiting the art fair don’t forget that the Friends of Old St. Ferdinand are having a book sale and giving tours of the Shrine throughout the day
The Craft Fair continues to grow each year. More than 60 crafters show off their talents with their hand crafted works for you to browse. With the holidays are right around the corner, festival-goers can start shopping a little early.
Elvis and Other Entertainers
This year , there will be a special treat musical treat on the Lawyers Building lot in the 100 block of St. Francois. On the band shell the Missouri Arts Council and the Regional Arts Commission will present “Memories of Elvis” featuring Steve Davis with “Double Trouble” and The Mid-South Revival Band. Performances at 1 and 3 p.m.
There will be entertainers throughout the 11 blocks of fun to include the Dixie Rhythm Kings, Cookie the Clown, Dan Sproat, Pat and Anna Auberry, Men of Harmony, Carol Brady our Story Teller, North County Big Band, George Gerules the Bag Piper, Seven Weeks After, Spent, Gabrielle and Abigail Stahlschmidt, Curtis Buckhannon and Bryson Gerard and more…
For those who may need assistance navigating the length of rue St. Francois, there will be two, six person golf carts making the run on a regular basis. As of this publication sponsors of the Festival are:
Festival Sponsors
Corporate Sponsors: Sandie’s Interiors, Click Heating and Cooling, Thomas Construction, Nimmons Wealth Management, John Ortwig, Baronwood Kennels and Life Care Center of Florissant.
Community Sponsors: Zykan Family Partnership and Commercial Bank
Neighborhood Sponsors: St. Clair Corporation, Welk Resorts, Petsmart, John Ortwig and IESI Waste, Stems, John Pennington, Boyle Law Firm.
St. Ferdinand Shrine Fall Festival Giant Book Sale ; Only $4 per Bag
St. Ferdinand Shrine will be hosting a giant used book sale during the Fall Festival The sale will take place in two areas. One will be on the parking lot of the Shrine and the other place will be on the second floor of the schoolhouse. Book prices are just $4 per bag and there are thousands of books available for the sale.
Choose from our selection of fiction, non-fiction, medical, reference, self-help, romance, children’s books, religious, cooking, diets, gardening and much more. There are also additional items such as records, cassette tapes, flea market items and more.
While at the Shrine you can tour the Church, Rectory and Convent. The Living History Reenactors will be making bread in the in-ground bread oven. There will be other activities on the Shrine Grounds including many activities from Florissant Valley Community College.
The Book Fair will run all afternoon, so come and choose your special books for just $4.00 per bag. All proceeds from the sale of the book fair go towards the upkeep of St. Ferdinand Shrine.
For more information call the Old Town Partners office at 837-0033 or visit the website at www.florissantoldtown.com and click on the Fall Festival link.
