Crafting enjoyable for fall

The common annual craft and vendor competition, ‘It’s Fall Y’all,’ returns to downtown Olive Hill this Saturday (October 4), bringing with it a weekend filled with enjoyable and fellowship. The occasion showcases not solely what Olive Hill and all the area has to supply but in addition highlights how we prefer to have enjoyable. There can be dwell music, crafts, and interactive leisure to be loved by all. The occasion can be held on the Depot in Olive Hill and guarantees an enormous turnout, like in years previous.

Event organizer Lisa Conley mentioned she expects a number of thousand folks to indicate up and have an exquisite time. The occasion begins at 10 a.m. and runs by way of 3 p.m. on Saturday with round seventy distributors, inflatables, and dwell music offered by native musicians. Conley mentioned folks can take pleasure in common video games just like the Toilet Paper Toss, Flip Cup Tic Tac Toe, and Blindfolded Pumpkin Painting, to not point out the favored ‘Family Calling Contest’ the place contestants showcase each their creativity and lung capability to holler for members of the family throughout (metaphoric) lengthy distances.

Conley, who serves on the board of Olive Hill Trail Town and is the Director of the Olive Hill Welcome Center and the Tom T. Hall Museum, mentioned this would be the ninth 12 months the favored occasion can be held.

“We used to hear complaints that there was nothing to do in Olive Hill in the fall,” Conley mentioned in regards to the origins of the occasion. “So, a group of us sat down and at first we tried to do it as a Harvest Festival.”

But the timing of availability to do the occasion was pushed into October, so she mentioned doing it as a harvest competition didn’t work out.

“So, we decided that we would allow people to come in and set up to do fundraisers,” Conley continued.

The fundraising side, she mentioned, was the rationale Fall Y’all doesn’t have meals vans. It provides native church buildings, nonprofits, and athletic organizations an opportunity to promote meals as a part of their fundraising efforts annually, she mentioned.

“And let me tell you, they all set out really good food,” Conley mentioned.

Trail Town does all forged iron cooking, as an illustration, Conley mentioned.

“They have soup beans, cornbread, and cobbler, all fixed on an open fire. It’s really good.”

“When we started, there might have been forty vendors,” Conley remembered. “And we started out with games like bed races and plank board races. And every year we try to keep what’s good, what people enjoy, and add other fun stuff.”

The occasion has had its challenges through the years, similar to when the town avenue the place they held the mattress races was closed (and have become a part of the freeway). But they’ve continued to work to enhance the occasion through the years and make crucial changes to what they provided the group and guests. And it has greater than doubled in dimension over time, now offering house for over eighty distributors this 12 months.

“And there is a huge variety,” Conley mentioned. “I have never seen the wide variety of vendors that we are going to have this year.”

Conley mentioned when she is speaking to potential distributors, she tells them that the kind of gadgets they select to promote is completely as much as them. This permits folks to have the ability to discover just about something they could be on the lookout for and the potential selection additionally improves every vendor’s means to market their gadgets and fundraise for his or her particular person organizations.

“People are interested in everything,” Conley mentioned. “We have gone from five or six hundred people attending the event to four to five thousand that come out for Fall Y’all.”

The means for distributors to fundraise for his or her organizations is a good bonus to the area people, Conley mentioned. And the occasion itself will use this 12 months’s proceeds from the rental of vendor house for the Caboose Restoration Project, so everybody advantages from the occasion. Conley mentioned she encourages everybody to return out this 12 months and have a great time whether or not they wish to compete in video games, make private or present purchases, or take pleasure in dwell music with pals they may not get to see in any other case.

“There is something for everyone,” Conley mentioned. “And with so many things available, you might find some really great things you didn’t even know you were looking for.”

Contact the author at charles@cartercountytimes.com