All about kids at Riverpark this weekend
There’s a weekend ahead of topnotch craft shows, heritage festivals and family fun, but here are three we recommend.
It’s all about kids at the Autumn Children’s Festival in the Tennessee Riverpark on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 1-2. Everything at this children’s carnival is geared to ages 12 and younger, and families who attend are helping families in need as the proceeds benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chattanooga, which assists families of seriously ill children with the Ronald McDonald House and its Family Room inside Children’s Hospital at Erlanger.
Admission into the festival is free, but all activities will require the purchase of tickets, which range in price from 50 cents to $3. There is a petting zoo, carnival games, horse rides, inflatables and face painting. Parents, bring your cameras for photo ops, especially Saturday when the big clown himself, Ronald McDonald, will make a meet-andgreet appearance at noon.
Victoria Tropiano, RMH spokeswoman, says new this year will be a bungee run and 33-footlong Titanic inflatable from Jump Dunk and Run, a children’s train ride from Ooltewah Nursery and tractor-pulled hayrides by Happy Days Entertainment.
Take a trip around the world without ever leaving First Tennessee Pavilion on Sunday, Oct. 2, when the 17th annual Culture Fest takes place.
Chattanooga State’s International Community Outreach Office is again coordinating this in partnership with ArtsBuild, Hunter Museum of American Art, the city of Chattanooga and Hamilton County.
More than 200 local multicultural leaders, speaking 30 languages, are expected to attend, according to Betty Proctor, Chattanooga State Public Information communication specialist.
The pageantry of 50 nations’ representatives in native attire makes the Parade of Nations a mustsee at 1 p.m. There will be cultural displays representing 28 nations, says event coordinator Gladys Pineda-Loher, as well as children’s activities such as calligraphy, origami, face painting and cultural games.
Music and dance performances will begin at 11:15 a.m. and continue through 3 p.m. ›
Heritage Day is being celebrated in LaFayette, Ga., at the historic Marsh House and in Joe Stock Park with events from sunup to sundown Saturday, Oct. 1.
Vendors will begin setting up at 7 a.m. in the park to be ready for the 9 a.m. opening. A parade will step off from LaFayette square at 10:30 a.m. leading revelers down Main Street to Joe Stock Park.
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Marsh House will
be open for tours. Even if one isn’t interested in browsing vendors or the musical performances, a visit to the Marsh House is worth it just to see this preserved circa-1836 home and hear its history. Union soldiers occupied the Marsh House during the Civil War. When they left, there were bullet holes in the wall, bloodied floors and horses’ hoof prints embedded in the downstairs flooring. The home is furnished with 19th-century furnishings, but not its original pieces because the house was stripped bare by soldiers before leaving LaFayette.
Craft and food vendors will close at 5 p.m., but inflatables will remain up so families may relax and enjoy dinner on the square before Movie in the Park begins at 8 p.m.