Warner celebrates with its annual Fall Foliage Festival
By Zachary Lewis
[email protected]
Celebrate fall in Warner Friday, Oct. 11, through Sunday, Oct. 13, for the 77th Warner Fall Foliage Festival.
“The historical part of the festival, this is the 77th year that it’s been going on. It’s a festival to celebrate the fall, number one. It’s always on Columbus Day weekend on just Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday,” said Ray Martin, a former Festival president and trove of knowledge on the Festival and how it operates. “It’s historically always been volunteer-run, volunteer-staffed with townspeople, and it raises money every year for various organizations within the town …”
Besides the beautiful scenery, what is there for visitors to do?
“It is a festival with amusement rides, a lot, I think we have almost 100 craftspeople, various sorts. It has food, a lobster and chicken barbecue and other sorts of food. It has a grand parade, a road race, a children’s race…,” Martin said.
The Warner Fall Foliage Festival is also free. “There’s no admission charge, but we do charge for parking if you go out to one of the outlying parking areas. So it’s really just a celebration of fall with the typical festival type things of food, crafts, people, amusement rides, and an oxen pull and a woodsman’s contest. The oxen pull is all day Saturday. The woodsman’s contest is all Sunday, all day. And there’s a grand parade on Sunday…,” Martin said.
The parade will celebrate Warner’s founding with leafy floats. “Every year it has a different theme. And this year people put in floats involving foliage. And the main thing is how much foliage you can use or how you use it creatively. This year is Warner’s 250th anniversary of the founding or the chartering of the town in 1774.”
Martin expects 10 to 15 floats as well as “some old cars and tractors and marching band and the Highland Scotsman bagpiping group.”
Music is a major component in celebrating the harvest season in Warner.
“There’s music at a tent right beside the Reed’s North bar and restaurant that has music … and then they’ve got a stage behind, more of a main street stage, that has an outdoor amphitheater that has the same scheduled music on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Martin said.
And then there’s the food.
“And then the other thing is the lobster or chicken barbecue that’s been going on for a long time and that drives a lot of people in. So those two things are great and consistent. It’s just one family that’s been doing [the barbecue] for 50 years, They’re on about the third generation,” Martin said.
The kids get involved too. “There’s a children’s parade, a children’s short run walk, and the activities for the kids are all the rides.”
How did Martin come to be involved with the festival in the first place? “If you live in town, you eventually will be asked to help. Most people always step up. It’s a very community-oriented event that does raise anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 a year to distribute.”
Since “foliage” is in the name, what types of tree leaves will visitors be able to view? “Oh, we have all the hardwood trees. It’s maple trees, then oak trees, maybe a few ash trees if they’re left, but all the hardwood trees will be most of it. There could be peak right, probably right about the time.”
“We usually get three or four thousand [visitors] a day. And the event is held, it’s right in downtown Warner, so it encompasses the village, the very downtown part of Warner,” he said “If you want to come enjoy a real community festival down to earth, small-ish, no admission charge, and very well-rounded in many different kinds of events that are happening,” Martin said.
Spellbound
When: Begins Monday, Oct. 7, with opening reception Saturday, Oct. 12, at 4 p.m.
Where: Mosaic Art Collective, 66 Hanover St., Suite 201 (second floor), Manchester
More: mosaicartcollective.com
Featured image: Music performance at a previous festival. Courtesy photo.