FEST READY TO GO!
39th annual Autumnfest gets under way today at WWII Park
WOONSOCKET – After all the preparation work, it was finally time to put on the show Friday night as the city’s 39th annual Autumnfest celebration started up at World War II Veterans Memorial Park between Social and East School streets.
Autumnfest Steering Committee Chairwoman Linda Plays noted Friday’s early activities were just part of a soft start-up with the 10-piece band, Brass Attack, to perform at the Woonsocket Rotary Club’s beer garden tent and Fanelli Amusements offering a ride-all-night wrist band special for its ride midway. The official opening would occur on the Main Stage this morning at 10 a.m., she added.
But after all the work involved in putting Autumnfest together in recent months, Plays admitted she felt good to have arrived at Columbus Day weekend nonetheless.
“The weather is going to be good and we have a whole day of entertainment scheduled,” Plays said of Saturday’s opening.
“Right now the main objective is that we kick off Autumnfest and start the 39th edition of the festival,” Plays said as she handled some last minute prep work at the Autumnfest Command Post with other members of the steering committee.
The weather forecast showed good weather into Sunday and while there could be rain on Monday, the day Autumnfest holds its big parade down Diamond Hill Road and Social Street, Plays said she wasn’t thinking about that Friday.
“I’ll start paying attention to that once we are up and running,” she said.
White arts and crafts tents were set up along the parks walking paths for the 80 different vendors signed up for this year’s Autumnfest, 20 more than last year according to Arts and Crafts chair Joe Therien. The food court was also ready to go with 25 vendors set up in the parking area above the World War II Veterans’ new splash park and playground.
The Main Stage’s sound equipment and lighting was also in place and will bring Autumnfest visitors the sounds of local bands and dance troupes and entertainers as well as the headliner show, Brian Duprey’s Frank Sinatra tribute act, on Saturday night.
Fireworks go off near the park on Sunday night and everything wraps up Monday after the parade arrives at the park entrance and an expected large crowd takes over World War II Park until Autumnfest’s closing at 6:30 p.m.
Woonsocket Police will be closing the section of East School Street between the Park and Fanelli ride set up across the street during festival hours and issued a schedule for the shutdowns beginning Friday night and again on Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and on Monday from after the parade ends until 6:30 p.m.
Plays said it was the work of all of Autumnfest’s many volunteers that would make this year’s festival another great addition to the list of Autumnfest weekends over the years.
“All of the steering committee members are here and all are checking in with their various job duties and we are ready to open,” she said.
Out on the food court, Tina and Greg Go were putting in their own volunteer contributions to this year’s edition with some last minute work on the Autumnfest Committee’s pizza booth. Tina will have a group of Beacon Charter High School for the Arts students working in the booth over the weekend as part of their community service projects and noted that will give the school a chance to highlight some of its upcoming theater projects.
“We are pretty excited about it. The kids love to do this every year and it counts for their community service hours,” Go, Beacon’s director of admissions, said.
The school had posters up at the booth for its Oct. 27 production of Ray Bradbury’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” and also a flyer for the “Cans for Candy” safe indoor trick or treat event benefitting the Rhode Island Community Food Bank at Beacon on October 28 for kids 10 and under at 4 p.m. Admission is a dollar or one non-perishable food item.
Go’s whole family is involved with Autumnfest again this year. In addition to working on the booths Greg also works with Linda Plays setting up the 10-Division Autumnfest Parade early Monday morning and their daughter Lita is running her own Lularoe Lita to Go clothing booth in the Arts and Crafts concourse. Their sons are also involved with Alex walking the parade to hold banners and Adam, a musician and DJ helping out her brother Todd Makalinaw’s band, Niteflies, put on its show in the beer garden Monday afternoon.
“Everybody is here and I never even thought about that,” Go said while tallying up her family’s participation.
As he also worked on the festival’s final preparations, Dick Savaria, Autumnfest Steering Committee vice chair, saw this year’s festival as going off very well.
“Everything is falling into place as it always does,” he said. The weather should be good for Saturday’s dodgeball competitions and the Mega-Wars tug-o-war faces offs on Sunday, he noted.
“There is a lot here for everyone,” Savaria said while pointing out all the food court booths, the arts and crafts offerings, the sports competitions, Kidsfest activities and shows on the Kidsfest stage, and all the entertainment scheduled for the Main Stage.
“If you don’t come down to Autumnfest, you are really missing something,” Savaria said.
The festival was founded as a way to bring residents of the area together at the end of the summer so they could see all their friends before winter set in and that still holds true today, Savaria said. “Whatever you like to do, it’s here,” he said.
Another longtime volunteer, Lions Club member Bill Schneck was also at the park on Friday getting ready to sell Autumnfest calendars, a fundraising sheet costing $10 each and awarding daily prizes through November, as a new way to help cover the festival’s costs along with the traditional sale of $1 Autumnfest buttons. “All the money goes to offset the costs of Autumnfest,” Schneck said while explaining that Committee member Garrett Mancieri had also worked this year to bring in corporate donations for Autumnfest as another expense contribution.
As for the weather, Schneck— who has seen a lot of the festival come and go since he became involved in 2000— predicted a good start on Saturday and Sunday. “I’m hearing it is going to be decent weather,” Schneck said while voicing a hope that the forecast would also hold through much of Monday.
As they left World War II Park’s playground with their kids on Friday, Nisha Marnane of North Smithfield and Tara Pina of Cumberland said they had been surprised to find the park looking so different from when they usually stop by.
“We were surprised to see all the tents and booths,” Marnane said while explaining they had never been to Autumnfest and were unfamiliar with the festival. Pina said unfortunately she has to work over the weekend and would not be able to bring her sons, Maddox, 4, and Jameson, 2, back to enjoy all the rides and fun.
Marnane, with Logan, 2, and Avery, 4, in tow, said she was interested in coming to Autumnfest and would try to make a visit. “We’re going to try but it all depends on naps, meals and soccer,” she said.
Follow Joseph Nadeau on Twitter: @JNad75