The City of Bloomfield kicks off their annual Fall Fest on Friday, Oct. 17, with a parade beginning at 5:30 p.m. and a full slate of events planned for Friday evening and all day Saturday, Oct. 18. A Project Prom Softball Tournament will be held and carnival rides will be provided at the park by Bluff City Rides.
"Welcome Home: Stars and Stripes Remembers WWII and Korea," sponsored by the Sixth Corp Living History Re-enactors, will be the headliners for a full slate of events held at the Stars and Stripes Museum as part of the Fall Fest celebration. A skirmish will be held at the museum at 12:30 p.m. Also at the museum, Holocaust survivor Ben Fainer will be speaking at 10 a.m., and there will be a weapons demonstration at 10:30 a.m.
This year a $5 parking fee will be charged at the park and the museum on Saturday, Lions Club member Sue Tippen says. The fee will be good all day Saturday and will be good for bus trips between the park and the museum. The $5 fee will allow unlimited travel between the two locations. All proceeds from the parking fee will go to the Stars and Stripes Museum. Modern Woodmen will provide matching funds up to $2,500.
The Quilt Show will be at the Stoddard County Historical Society Museum from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Also at the museum will be an Evans Pottery display. Kathy Skelton, granddaughter of Randal Evans, will be making presentation on the pottery.
Bloomfield Fall Fest at the park will feature lots of food vendors, arts and crafts booths and the Miss Bloomfield Pageant (open only to Bloomfield School District residents) Friday night beginning at 7 p.m. Pageants of all ages will be held Saturday beginning at 9:30 a.m. (open to residents throughout Stoddard County).
The carnival will be open on Friday night and all day Saturday, Tippen says. She added that it is possible the carnival will set up for operation on Thursday night.
The Project Prom Softball Tournament begins at 7 p.m. Friday night. Tippen says anyone who wants to play in the tournament should "show up prior to the start of the tournament."
Entertainment includes the gospel group Joyful Noise at 3 p.m. and Maggie Thorn at 7 p.m.
The Bloomfield Fire Department will have one of the food booths and feature "tater piles." Other civic organizations and churches will be offering a wide variety of food during the festival.
Fall Fest was started by the Bloomfield Lions Club but is now a joint effort of the Lions Club, the City of Bloomfield, the Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce and the Bloomfield Schools.
Following is a schedule of events:
Friday
5:30 p.m. - Parade starts at the schools and ends at the park
7 p.m. - Arts and crafts booths, carnival and other activities begin, park
7 p.m. - Miss Bloomfield Pageant, park
7 p.m. - Project Prom Softball Tournament, park
Saturday
9 a.m. - WWII and Korean exhibits -- museum
9 a.m. - Quilt Show, Historical Museum on Center Street
9 a.m. - Evans Pottery display, Historical Museum
9:30 a.m. - Park opens for all activities
9:30 a.m. - Project Prom Softball resumes, park
9:30 a.m. - Fall Fest Pageants begin, park
10 a.m. - Holocaust survivor Ben Fainer speaks, museum
10: 30 a.m. - Weapons demonstration, museum
12 noon -- Missing man ceremony, museum
12:30 p.m. - Sixth Corps Living History Re-enactors skirmish, museum
1 p.m. - Holocaust survivor ben Fainer speaks, museum
1:30 p.m. - Uniform and equipment demonstration, museum
2 p.m. - WWII era music provided by the Bloomfield High School Choir, museum
3 p.m. - Joyful Noise performs, park
7 p.m. - Maggie Thorn performs, park