It’s the first official day of fall which is a signal that the Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive Fall Festival is around the corner.
The SRV Scenic Drive’s officers are hard at work in their final preparations for the festival’s 52nd year coming up in the first two weekends of October.
Largely, Festival President Jodie Kost says the same old favorites can be expected to be dispersed throughout Fulton County.
He does say that Farmington West has a new site manager in Susan Platt, and Kost looks forward to possible changes she’ll bring.
As far as vendors, Kost estimates about 80 percent of their vendors come back year after year, some from as far as Florida and Arkansas.
It might be easier to list things that you won’t see at the Spoon River Drive than things you will.
“Anything you can imagine is out there on that drive,” Kost tells WGIL. “There’s an old saying that you could eat your way through the drive cause there’s all kinds of food. If you like chicken gizzards, or fries, candy bars, or something like that. It’s all out there.”
He asks festival-goers to look out for vendors that are baring a red Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive logo.
“Those are the folks who contribute to the porta pots and the advertising. They’re making a better world for everybody else. Not all vendors along the drive are. If they have the red and white sign, they are definitely Spoon River Vally Scenic Drive people.”
That means that they’ve paid membership fees which are used by the festival’s non-profit to pay for festival infrastructure like portable toilets.
There was conversation last year in London Mills about pulling out of the Spoon River Drive but ultimately village trustees narrowly elected to stay, so London Mills will be the first stop this year.
There are 21 locations to stop at that traverse 140 driven miles of Fulton County.
