The 2023 Russellville Downtown Fall Festival and Chili Cook-off was hosted on Saturday, Oct 28. and was quite different from others in the past. It wasn’t the most attended Fall Festival but the people who braved the rain still had fun and got the classic Fall Fest atmosphere, if not just a little bit wetter.
This year’s fall festival had a variety of things for anyone interested in interacting with different businesses and members in our community. There were about 100 vendor tents set up that hosted a myriad of activities. There was a 5k run in the morning, a children’s fun run, a children’s costume contest, live music, and the annual chili cook-off. There was also a variety of goods on sale, ranging from walking tacos at Kathy’s Kabana to Christmas ornaments at Sawdust and Smiles Limited.
According to various vendors and booths set up at Fall Fest, about sixty percent of the normal amount of vendors were present. Among those vendors and booths was the Service Members and Veterans of America, a student-run organization from ATU.
Students at the booth were selling hot breakfast sandwiches to warm people up from the rain. Club treasurer Janeth Arreguin Lawson, a biomedical biology major in her junior year, said they were hoping to “raise funds in order to attend a conference in Nashville to learn more information regarding our club.”
Though the event was put on by the City of Russellville, many ATU student organizations had a helping hand involved. The Resilience In Disasters and Emergencies student organization were called on to help run the event and control traffic in the area.
While the Fall Festival and Chili Cook-off is an annual event, there are many more upcoming community events that can be found at www.mainstreetrussellville.com.
