Twin City Fall Festival honors past organizer

The Twin City Fall Festival will be Oct. 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In its eighth year, the festival will offer food, music, crafts and several contests for everyone in the family.

The festival also created a lasting friendship four years ago for the event’s founder and organizer, Kathy Allen of Uhrichsville.

“I started the festival myself eight years ago,” Allen said. “I wanted to do something for the community, for people who say there’s nothing to do here. It started out covering just half a block.”

Allen said the festival now stretches over several streets downtown while the car show takes up many of the side streets.

Allen did the festival on her own the first few years. It had become a major project, and she needed help. Reaching out on Facebook, she got a single response from Lori Sutton, who dug right in and helped with the festival each year through 2018.

The two became good friends. “I was so glad she volunteered, and she was the only one who answered my call for help,” Allen said.

Sutton contracted liver cancer and passed away in April of this year due to treatment complications. It was sooner than anyone expected.

“She is certainly missed by a lot of people. This year’s Fall Festival is dedicated to Lori Sutton in memory of all she did to help with it every year,” Allen said.

The Fall Festival will feature free pumpkins for children who attend, and Allen said the kids can decorate them that day or take them home to do later, which may be a good option as there will be plenty of activities to keep them busy that day including face painting and cookie and Angry Bird cupcake baking contests.

Registration for the car show will begin at 9 a.m. and be open until noon. Trophies will be awarded at 2 p.m., and this year’s trophies are bigger and better than ever with one reaching just over 5 feet high. Allen said the car show is always a very popular part of the Fall Festival.

Registration for the cookie, cupcake, jellyroll, pie-baking and bread-making contests is from 10-11 a.m. with judging beginning at 11:45 a.m. and extending through 1:45 p.m.

Bring your best chili recipe for the cook-off, which is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the corner of Third and Uhrich streets, with judging at 2 p.m.

Live music by Sam and Jimmy Hitchcock is set to entertain festival visitors from 1-4 p.m.

Food trucks from Three Lil Piggies Barbecue, Texas Roadhouse and the Brunch Box will be on hand to serve food, and the Downtown Diner also will serve hungry festivalgoers.

Sponsors this year for the festival and car show include the First National Bank of Dennison, Fab Ohio, Mister Trailer, Chase Bank, R K Lindsey Funeral Home, Gardner Street Garage, Trenton Tire, Advance Auto Parts, Johnson Tires and others. Updated information, contest entry rules and vendor applications are available at the Twin City Fall Festival 2019 Facebook page.

The festival is held on the streets in downtown Uhrichsville.