Bird houses on sale at the festival. Photo provided.
(Editor’s Note: The author of this article is one of the key persons involved with the Duluth Fall Festival. She is one of the originators of the festival, chaired it for years, and still works handily on it. She is the perfect person to answer the question, “Why the Festival?”—eeb).
By Kathryn Willis
DULUTH, Ga. | All of these frantic preparations; a year of meetings and planning. Why?
We’re talking about the Duluth Fall Festival. Why do we work so hard and long to put it on?
None of the volunteers personally profit. We aren’t paid. Is there another reason?
Willis
Yes, there is! We all love Duluth, newcomers and oldtimers alike, we love our town! Working with Duluth Fall Festival lets us show this, and in the process makes us love it even more!
The roots of Duluth Fall Festival go back over 60 years. Duluth’s first celebration was held in the spring of 1962. This was inspired by a newcomer, a Yankee banker, who said we should have a centennial.
We told him Duluth wasn’t 100 years old; he convinced us that no one would ever know. So we did! We had a five-week celebration of the history of the town, with everyone wearing turn-of-the-century clothing and the men growing beards. Then in 1976, another successful spring festival was held, celebrating the real centennial of Duluth’s charter, and the bi-centennial of our nation.
Out of these two events evolved the Duluth Fall Festival. It was supposed to be another spring festival. We started in early 1983, but by the time we were ready it had turned into a Fall Festival. This year will be the 39th year, and every Festival has gotten bigger and better. It is always held on the very last weekend of September.
We are the biggest festival in the southeast that has no paid staff, with more than 400 volunteers. Through the years the Festival has won numerous awards. We have often won best in Gwinnett and Georgia, and also best in the Southeast. One year, Country Living Magazine named us fifth best Festival in the entire nation.
And we are much more than just a Festival! We have over 30 events a year including a free public concert, monthly Festival meetings, Festival Nights Out, a Festival retreat, several sponsor parties, a Summer Rally and a volunteer Christmas party. Plus, we have an untold number of planning meetings of our 55—yes 55—separate committees.
The money we have raised through our Festival sponsor program has almost all been spent right here in Downtown Duluth. We have remodeled and updated buildings, originally bought Taylor Park and donated it to the City, and completely paid for the center point, the Festival Center. We have bricked sidewalks, completed landscaping, built out parks, and donated heavily to areas such as Parsons Alley.
We have funded art pieces such as the historic Mosaic on the side of Dreamland, the Eastern Continental Divide monument, large Downtown Christmas trees, three original paintings for the Festival Center and other projects.
But this is only part of the success of the Festival. The camaraderie of getting to know each other, and working together for a common cause, is almost more important. Duluth still has that same small- town spirit it had before all of this tremendous growth, and we all want to keep it that way.
So, in case any of you would like to know more about us or even be a part of this, let us know. Also, plan to come to the Duluth Fall Festival on Saturday and Sunday, September 24-25, and then you will understand.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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