Don’t lose your head, but Sleepy Hollow and Zelie Fall Festival are here
Ghouls just want to have fun.
Keep this in mind when crowds and costumed creatures descend on the neighboring boroughs of Harmony and Zelienople this weekend. Harmony’s Sleepy Hollow will be on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Zelienople’s Fall Festival will last from 10 to 7 pm. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Live acoustic music, carriage rides and hayrides, games, costume contests, crafts, food and other festive favorites will fill the streets.
Sleepy Hollow will kick off a “pumpkin drop” at 2 p.m. Saturday from Harmony’s Mercer Road Bridge, where anyone can purchase a mini pumpkin, which organizers will then drop into Connoquenessing Creek, the pumpkins will float downstream to Wood Street Park. Pumpkins will be numbered, and the first pumpkin across the finish line will earn a prize for its owner.
Contestants can purchase the pumpkins at these spots in Harmony: Bottlebrush Gallery at 539 Main St., the Harmonie Laden shop at 229 Mercer St., or the Enchanted Olive at 120 Perry Highway.
Sleepy Hollow will also feature an antique flea market, an art show highlighting work by photographer Stuart Chandler, and a pet fair.
The pet fair will include a costume contest for dogs, a “blessing of the pets,” and a pet trick-or-treat.
Proceeds from that event will benefit the Butler County Humane Society and Harmony Business Association.
“It raises money for the Harmony Business Association to draw people into the members’ business, so foot traffic,” said Sherry Cepek, head of Harmony Business Association. “I think that the draw to Harmony are the historical buildings, and it’s more of a small-town feel. It’s always a small event.”
There’s always a good turnout though, she said.
Zelie’s own spooktacular spectacle will offer a chili cook-off, a car cruise, bounce houses, craft beer and a “tailgate zone” — with bean bag toss and ax throwing.
More than 200 show cars are set to roll out for the car cruise on Sunday, Oct. 16, from noon to 4 p.m. at Creekside Plaza, near 100 Perry Highway. People who crave the sizzle of a good chili cook-off can find this from noon to 3 p.m. at the Tailgate Zone.
“I do know that we will draw a big crowd, and there will be a big turnout,” said Mayor Thomas Oliverio. “It’s getting bigger and bigger each and every year.”
Oliverio added that for him and many other residents in Zelie and elsewhere, the event’s a living legacy of Ethel May Hall. She really began the whole celebration, he said, and the energy and warmth she and her husband, Lloyd Hall, brought to the community lives on through it.
