Fall Festival Booth Ideas

Part of the fun of a seasonal festival is decorating and coming up with themes to suit the season. A fall festival booth is the perfect place for autumn classics such as colorful leaves, apples, pumpkins and gourds, and a selection of fall-themed foods and beverages.

The ideal types of booths for a fall festival really depend upon the organization hosting the event, as well as the intended audience. For instance, if the event is geared toward families, plan on having a booth or two with crafts. Set up a booth with small or medium pumpkins and acrylic paints or paint markers for kids of all ages to decorate and take home their own Halloween pumpkin.

Offer a face-painting booth with an artistic volunteer to decorate children's faces as their favorite Halloween characters. If the festival has certain areas geared toward adults, consider providing foods or beverages that adults prefer, such as mulled wines or a charcuterie board with assorted cheeses and meats.

Another big draw at virtually any festival are the booths with food or specialty beverages. A fall festival booth is the perfect place to offer autumnal delights such as warm apple cider or hot cocoa on a chilly evening. Spiced donuts, apple fritters or pumpkin cookies are all nice treats at such an event. Depending upon the date of the event, offer up themed cookies shaped and colored like autumn leaves, pumpkins, or even skeletons, witches or turkeys.

A booth offering fresh kettle corn is a huge draw, as the tantalizing aroma wafts throughout the festival site. Another could offer candy or caramel apples or warm spiced nuts. Be sure to keep trash cans on hand, as well as takeout supplies, to suit the needs of all festival goers and to cut down on any post-festival mess.

Whether the booths feature independent vendors or each represents the organization hosting the event, it's nice if the booths have a cohesive look that ties the site together visually. For instance, strands of oversized artificial autumn leaves look nice around the front perimeter of each booth. Jumbo candy corn displays also add an autumn vibe to the tables in the booths. Cover booth tables in the colors of autumn using plastic tablecloths in orange, yellow, or even black if any booth in particular has a Halloween theme.

Use hollow faux pumpkins as tabletop decor in the booths. Battery-operated lighting set inside the pumpkins emits a soft, enticing glow. Halloween-related booths may have carved faux pumpkins featuring cute faces, lit from the inside with battery-operated lights that look like candles. Actual candy corn also makes a festive display on tabletops in the booths; just sprinkle some around any table surfaces facing the customers at each booth for a playful touch.

Decorative gourds are also excellent for just about any type of fall festival. Any time during autumn, these gourds are quite easy to find in local shops, including most grocery stores. They come in all sizes and colors, so it's simple to come up with festive accents for each festival booth just by buying a bunch of gourds. Animals also love eating all sorts of squashes and gourds, so feel free to leave them in your backyard or offer them to a local wildlife facility as a tasty treat for the animals after the festival ends.

Games also add to the fun of any fall festival. The site Carnival Savers recommends creating your own version of ring toss using a group of large-stemmed pumpkins. Use inexpensive glow bracelets as the rings to toss onto the pumpkin stems. Create another fun game for the kiddos by painting scrap wood or cardboard to look like a spider's web. Use black beanbags decorated to look like spiders, then have the kids toss these, trying to make the spiders land on the webs.

For other fun games, make your own fall-themed versions of classics such as tossing a football or plush pumpkin through the "mouth" of a clown or Halloween monster. Another dizzying race involves a broom that looks like a witches' broom. Have each kid hold their broom so one end is on the ground, then spin around the broom 5 or 10 times as fast as possible before racing to a finish line. Be sure to play this one on soft ground, as it's easy to fall after getting dizzy.