Town kicks off new festival with pumpkins, contests, tai chi
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SARAH CAVACINI/Palatka Daily News – Mia and Maylene Ruiz paint pumpkins Saturday during the inaugural Interlachen Fall Festival.
INTERLACHEN – The West Putnam County town hosted its first fall festival Saturday that featured games, a pie contest, a car show and more activities for local families to enjoy.
Interlachen Town Councilwoman Joni Conner organized the festival and lined up musicians, numerous vendors and an area for kids to have some fall fun.
She said at least 300 people attended the Interlachen Fall Festival.
She said the Interlachen Fall Festival had at least 300 attendees, a great number for a brand-new event.
“For the first time out, I thought it was out of the ballpark; I really do,” Conner said Tuesday.
Glittering vintage cars, scarecrows and little pumpkins decorated the Atlantic Avenue area, where the festival took place. People even adopted four of the six dogs available at Saturday’s event, Conner said.
Town Clerk Joni Payne said the event had a great turnout and the weather was perfect. While nothing has been set in stone, she expressed a desire to have the festival again – and again.
“I think our Events Committee (did) an outstanding job,” she said in a Facebook message. “I would look for this to be an annual event.”
Conner said she and Events Committee members are already planning for next year.
The town’s Events Committee was only recently formed, said Conner, who is the committee’s chairwoman. Despite the name, the Events Committee is separate from the organizations that spearhead Fourth of July and Christmas celebrations, she added.
“We’re trying to do things for the community and get people out and enjoy the area,” Conner said. “And I think so far we’ve been pretty successful.”
Aside from Conner, who could be seen around the Atlantic Avenue area checking last-minute details of the festival, other town officials got in on the action.
Some of the employees helped with the pie contest, and Councilwoman Beverly Bakker supervised pumpkin painting for children.
Katy Goldapple, a wellness instructor from Island Doctors, kicked off the event at 11 a.m. a little differently from other Interlachen events. The tai chi instructor led a morning demonstration on the caboose stage, with numerous people participating in the gentle exercise, including Council Chairwoman Carolyn Bennett and Events Committee member Trish Branch.
Goldapple said Bennett and Branch already practiced tai chi with her at Island Doctors so they simply moved their practice to another location Saturday.
“I figured we’d get ourselves out there,” Goldapple said Saturday, “… and hopefully get some more people.”
