Chamber Corner: Circus, Fall Fest on Main
I have to start by thanking everyone that came to the Circus on Wednesday! The weather turned out beautiful and ticket sales were excellent. After 200 were sold at the gates that evening, we had close to 1,000 tickets sold!
I have nothing but positive to say about the Culpepper & Merriweather Circus team. They were very professional throughout the process and they do these circuses as fundraisers for the communities they travel through. The Chamber paid nothing for them to come and then received a cut of the ticket sales. A win-win for both.
I’ll admit, with all the rain we received Tuesday night there was some doubt if we could continue if the grounds got too saturated. But, we made some adjustments and the show went on. A big thank you to the Walnut Park District for letting us use the W Field and the Village of Walnut for their help preparing for the event. Another huge thank you to the businesses that bought pre-sale tickets and donated them back to the Chamber to giveaway to children.
The best comment I heard is “it was good, clean family entertainment and that is hard to find nowadays.” Couldn’t agree more.
If you are looking for more good family entertainment then mark October 6 on your calendar. That is the date of this year’s Fall Fest on Main to be held in downtown Walnut.
We have launched a new website at www.walnutfallfest.com with lots of information and this year’s schedule. Posters and brochures will also be distributed this week. If you would like to help volunteer for the event contact me at director@walnutillinois.com. We usually have close to 100 volunteers to make this event happen.
Over the first two year’s of the event we took some of the communities feedback and implemented it for 2018.
The first was more entertainment for the older kids 10 and up. So, this year we are bringing in Xtreme Crossfire Paintball from Rock Falls, IL. Xtreme Crossfire Paintball is a mobile, inflatable paintball arena that will be set up on the W Field. It will be $10 for unlimited play from 2-4 p.m.
The second was a bigger variety of food or food vendors. So this year we are bringing in some vendors to be available all day from 11-8 p.m. We have two confirmed vendors and are working on some other options as well. We can tell you one of the confirmed is Backyard Party Guys from Princeton. They have attended our festival in the past and this year they are bringing their unique wood fire pizzas to sell. The other is Flo’s who will be serving a variety of foods: tenderloins, tacos, shrimp, BBQ ribs, cheese curds from Avanti’s, and more. Of course some of our local restaurants are just a few steps away and will be offering specials that evening as well.
I cannot wait for Fall Fest on Main. It’s just over a month away!
Remember to shop Walnut this week.
