Butler Fall Festival returns to Main Street on Saturday
After a one-year absence, the Butler Fall Festival returns from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, for the 45th time, and organizers are promising that this year’s fall festival will be the largest in years.
According to Dahn Kilroy, vice president of the festival committee, this will be the first time the festival has been held on Main Street since 2018.
Due to a lack of volunteers required to run such a large event, the 2019 festival was moved to Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park and reduced in scope.
“Pullman Park was a much more contained area and easier for just a few volunteers to handle,” Kilroy said.
The 2020 festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the 2021 festival was retooled into two smaller “community days” over two Saturdays at two different parks. Last year, the festival was supposed to make its full-fledged return to Main Street, but it was canceled due to the threat of Hurricane Ian.
“This year, we are excited to bring it back to Main Street,” Kilroy said.
Specifically, the festival will take up the section of Main Street between the intersections at Wayne and Penn streets. Traffic will be redirected down McKean and Washington streets.
For the festival’s grand return to Main Street, the organizing committee is promising a stacked lineup of food, music and fun. A large component will be the Kids’ Zone, which will feature numerous games and activities for children, including an ice cream vendor, a Carnival Corner and an 1880s Pioneer Experience.
There are more than 100 craft and food vendors signed up for the festival, and there is still space for more, according to Kilroy. There will be no shortage of food options this year, including barbecue, Italian, kettle corn and cocktails.
“We have a really great variety of craft vendors coming this year,” Kilroy said. “There are vendors selling jewelry, tumblers, handmade soaps and candles, clothing, fall and holiday decor. We have schools coming that are doing basket raffles and bake sales.”
Food vendors will be located around Butler’s Diamond Park, with craft vendors stacked down both sides of Main Street.
Also part of this year’s festival will be a classic car cruise down Brady Street. Music this year will be provided by DJ Cody from Kittanning’s Oakwood Tavern.
