The Dumfries Fall Festival could be moved to the town’s only school.
The annual festival will start at 11 a.m. October 17. Organizers propose moving the festival from its usual location at Garrison Park behind Town Hall to nearby Dumfries Elementary School on Cameron Street.
The school will hold a 5K from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. that same morning. Organizers say the early-morning 5K event could help boost attendance at the fall festival.
“[The school is] locked in and going to go ahead with [the 5K run] no matter what we do. This is another example of competing events…” said Town Manager Daniel Taber.
Low attendance at recent functions has been blamed on other events in the area siphoning away would-be attendees for events in Dumfries, and the lack of proper advertising of town events.
Dumfries Community Services Director Ryan Gandy told the Town Council last year’s festival was more of a vendor fair than traditional festival. He proposed doing away with vendors that sell food and merchandise at this year’s festival.
“We’ve found an company that provides games and carnival rides for children, that is within our budget. We would be able to have a carnival.. an actual fall festival,” said Gandy.
Council members rebuffed that claim by saying vendors are necessary.
“Vendors look forward to this all year, especially if this is their business, this is their chance to get out and expose, and it encourages them to continue to come out and participate,” said Councilman Derek Wood, who owns a mobile barbecue business and is a regular vendor at town fairs.
Councilwoman Gwen Washington, a faculty member at Dumfries Elementary School, “loves” the idea of using the school as the site for the fall festival. She proposed using adjacent Merchant Park, next to the Weems-Botts Museum, to house vendors.
“I have this vision that before I leave this earth we’re going to close off Cameron Street, and we’re going to use the school and merchant park and have a big block party. And this is the beginning of that,” said Washington.
If the school’s PTA decides to sell hot dogs and hamburgers on its property during the fair, Washington suggested vendors at Merchant Park sell other foodstuffs. She also suggested using the gazebo at the park as the festival’s main performance stage.
