Weekend to feature 3 big events
Staff writer
Marion County residents will have a trifecta of events to choose between this Saturday: the Peabody Fall Festival, Goessel’s Harvest Fest, and the Marion County Lake Chili Cookoff.
Peabody
Peabody’s Fall Festival will coincide with its homecoming week.
A bonfire with cheerleading performances at 7 p.m. today will lead off homecoming activities.
At 12:30 p.m. Friday, the high school will hold class and candidate games at the school’s practice field.
At 2:15, a homecoming parade will march down Walnut St. to Sante Fe Park, where a pep rally is planned.
At 7, the Peabody-Burns varsity football team will play its homecoming game against Marais des Cygnes Valley. Attendees are being encouraged to wear white and blue to cheer on the Warriors. Junior class members will sell Frito pie and other concessions.
Fall Festival proper will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Events will include a dog show, tractor pull, cornhole tournament, magic show, rock climbing walls, and birdhouse painting.
Peabody Historical Society will sell desserts.
Artist Carol Bradbury will be set up from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Attendees will be able to add to a community banner she has created along with local high school students.
Peabody Fire Department will sponsor its annual car show in City Park during the festival.
Goessel
Goessel’s Harvest Fest will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission will be free.
The festival will see the Mennonite Heritage and Agricultural Museum unveil a new exhibit featuring objects brought back from Goessel resident Rod Ratzlaff’s visits to Przechowko, Poland. The objects help tell the story of Mennonites’ arrival in Goessel, then known as Alexanderwohl.
Homemaking demonstrations of needlework, rope-making, and wool-spinning are planned from 10 a.m. to noon.
County lake
The annual Chili Cookoff, which typically attracts around 500 famished guests, will be Saturday outside the Lake Hall.
A bake sale and car show will operate alongside the cook-off. Each event will kick off at 11 a.m.
For $5, a “taste kit” can be bought, which allows the user to try every kind of chili at the cookoff. Organizer Isaac Hett said there will be about 18 recipes to try this year.
Attendees can help decide both the best chili and the best car by voting with tokens provided at the start of the event.
Voting will conclude at 2:30 p.m. Afterwards, guests might consider a cornhole tournament to burn a few calories. The tournament will last until 5 p.m.