How to Plan A Fall Festival

A fall festival is a celebration that welcomes the change of the seasons to fall. It's a designated time where we can celebrate the changes of nature, upcoming holidays and nature together as a group.

It's a great community social event that when planned effectively can help bring a community/group or neighborhood together. And as the master planner of the festival, it can help develop your social, planning and leadership skills.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• The help of others specifically a planning committee and volunteers.
• Patience and a firm commitment to this event.
• Food and drinks to serve at the fall festival and utensils to enjoy it.
• Art supplies, decorations and any other items needed to help decorate the festival space and to use for activities during the event.

1. Decide to plan a fall festival and determine your target audience or the participants at the festival. Will it be your neighbors, people who frequent a local park, church members, a community group, a local school? Or another group entirely? Also, determine the number of your target audience. Will it be a small group or a large group?

2. Enlist the help of people from your target audience. Form a committee and sub-committees depending on the size of the event, the number of tasks and people attending.

3. Choose a location. Fall is usually a good time to celebrate an outdoor location before it gets too cold (depending on your location). Choose a location has a lot of open space so that you have room to spread out.
   
   Be sure to set a specific time to set up and clean up the festival space. Prepare an alternative space should there be bad weather and if the festival will take place outdoors.

4. Consider your audience to plan activities for the festival.
   For children, consider activities like collecting leaves, story-telling, face painting, coloring and painting; or something fun like riding on the back of a flatbed truck filled with bales of hay.
   
   Plan to have activities that the entire family will enjoy such as music and theater entertainment. Perhaps a group of people can perform a short play or skit. Consider storytelling and theater activities that center around the theme of fall and upcoming holidays like Thanksgiving. Consider the history of Pilgrims and Native Americans.

5. Schedule the fall festival. Create a schedule for the festival but be sure to allow for free time in between activities. Plan more than one activity at the same time so that people will have a variety of activities to choose from.
   
   For entertainment, set aside a specific time for each entertainer. You may not want any additional activities going on at this time. Be sure to call or gather entertainment and volunteers for the actual festival.

6. Consider your food options. For a smaller festival consider offering appetizers and drinks. Hot drinks such as hot apple cider, and hot chocolate are excellent choices for this time of year.
   
   For a larger festival consider a pot luck where everyone brings a dish to share or consider asking food vendors to set up stands to offer their food for sale.
   
   Ask people to donate food, drinks, utensils and even money to make the event possible. Seek donations from your committee or community group but also prospective festival participants.

7. Announce the fall festival. Get the word out! Print up signs and advertisements and place them around in your local area. Notify community leaders and ask that your festival be announced publicly. Announcements can be placed in community newspapers or newsletters, on the radio, at schools, churches and any other public place that participants of the festival will frequent.

8. Create a festival task list. Create a task list which includes categories such as activities, entertainment, set up and clean up. Then, delegate and designate each task.
   
   Set up meeting times to plan the festival. These should be informal and casual in the spirit of the event but be sure to get down to business!

9. Decorate your space for the festival. Whether your fall festival is indoors or outdoors, consider using traditional fall colors to decorate the space. Colors such as orange, gold, brown, red and green are reflective in fall. Consider decorating with items such as pumpkins, bales of hay and corn maize.

10. Final call. Call and email those on your contact list to reconfirm everything is in order for the festival. Check with your committee and any subcommittees to ensure that all tasks on your festival task list have been completed.
    
    Make sure the festival space is properly set up and decorated. Enjoy your festival!

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to create a contact list of everyone that is integral to the event.
• Check with your committee members frequently to track their progress.
• If any new tasks come up, delegate or take care of them as quickly and efficiently as time permits.
• Seek out volunteers as well as potential festival participants to help the committee carry out these tasks. The more help you can garner, the better the festival!
• Call or email your contacts to confirm advertisements, announcements, entertainment. Issues may come up but if you stay one step ahead, you can almost always circumvent or find alternatives before it is too late.