It’s Fall Festival time!

Annual event takes place Saturday in Lovell

The second Fall Festival sponsored by the Lovell Area Chamber of Commerce and local merchants promises to give attendees much better weather than last year’s event, when cold rain and sleet marred the festival in early October.

This year’s festival, set for Saturday, Sept. 26, should enjoy temperatures in the upper 70s and a 1 percent chance of rain, according to the weather forecast as of Tuesday.

Fall Festival in Lovell – Sugar Beets and Sunflower Saturday – will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and feature in-store and sidewalk shopping, plus a Homemade Soup Walk at eight locations with donations taken to benefit the Lovell Library.

Vendors will display their wares starting at 10 a.m. at the Downtown Mural Park at Main and Nevada, and the chamber of commerce will give out $500 in chamber bucks, with a $50 drawing  every half hour starting at 10 a.m. Sign up at the chamber office.

The Homemade Soup Walk will begin at 11 a.m. with two to three soups offered at each of eight locations: Wild Edge, Queen Bee, Valley Flower and Gifts, KB Lumber, Sweet Art Cake Company, Ace Hardware, Lovell Drug and the Lovell Library.

Also participating with sales or specials will be the Horseshoe Bend Motel Boutique, Hyart Theatre, Haskell Furniture and the Chamber of Commerce.

Kids games, a fall selfie station and pumpkin painting will begin at 10 a.m. at the Horseshoe Bend Motel Boutique, and Kids Krafts will begin at 11 a.m. at the Lovell Library, along with face painting at Valley Flower.

Coats may be dropped off at the chamber of commerce during the event to kick off the annual winter coat drive.

Plans are in the works for a Punkin’ Chunkin’ event in 2027, and a demonstration will be held at the Lovell Middle School field at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

“We are really excited about expanding and building (this event),” chamber manager Linda Morrison said at Monday’s membership luncheon. “Last year was our first fall festival, and the rain nearly scared us out of it, but it turned out to be a really big success in spite of it. So we want to have this annual event. We’ve got some events that we’re pretty excited about.

“The most important reason why we do this is for our businesses. We want folks to come into our businesses. It’s pre-Christmas. It’s the pre-season. So we want them to come in, see what everybody’s got and then we move into the Mingle with more, but that is our goal. Our fall festival has fun things, and that’s good. But the most important emphasis that we have is to get people into the businesses. So that’s why we think the soup walk is going to be really fun, because the places where folks get their soup is going to be in the businesses.”

Store owner Cindy Asay of Wild Edge said she believes the day will be lots of fun – and beneficial to the library.

“We’re having different people around town create the soup, and they’re going to bring it into our stores, and they’re going to be serving it at each store,” Asay said. “There will be a container, and everyone is just encouraged to donate. So it’s donation only, and all of it is going to go to the library. We’ll have two or three soups in each one, and we’re hoping that it’s really fun. You can just walk around town, enjoy some different soups.”

As for the drawings for chamber bucks, once a name is drawn, Linda or Bruce Morrison will call the phone number on each entry form, and the winner must answer the call. If not, another name will be drawn. The winner must claim the chamber bucks on Saturday.

Bighorn Canyon events

On Friday, the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area is celebrating the 60^th anniversary of the park and the 50^th anniversary of the Cal S. Taggart Visitor Center at the center just east of town at 20 U.S. Highway 14A.

Fishing and Fellowship will be offered from noon to 2 p.m., and cake and refreshments will be served from 2 to 3 p.m. A special multimedia presentation featuring the “Then and Now of Bighorn Canyon” will be featured in the auditorium.

The Bighorn Canyon Adult Book Club sponsored by the Western National Parks Association will kick off the book reading for the winter from 3 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the visitor center. Featured this Saturday will be “Hey, Ranger! Part 1” by Jim Burnett.

“On Friday, we’re doing our 50^th and 60th anniversaries,” Bighorn Canyon Interpretation and Education Manager Christy Fleming said. “It’s the 50th birthday of the center, and the 60th anniversary of the park is next month, so we’re combining them all together. So please come down for fishing, fellowship and refreshments. And then on Saturday, when you’re done with the fall festival, come and read one story in “Hey, Ranger” with us to kick off our book club for the winter.”