The Patagonia Fall Festival is finally at a post-pandemic point. Capacity was limited from 2021 to 2023. The 35th annual event, save 2020, which was postponed due to COVID-19, will look like 2019. More than 130 vendors will be on hand 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, and Sunday, Oct. 13, at Patagonia Town Park.
“We’re looking forward to returning to our fall festival theme,” said Amanda Staples, artistic program manager at SAACA (Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance). “The last few years, we were the Sky Islands Festival, but now we’re back, and we’re making sure that there will be a variety of things to do.”
There are a plethora of events, many aimed at families. There will be a kid’s sack race both days, as well as pumpkin painting and a pumpkin scavenger hunt.
Spinal Tap won’t be present but the award-winning Red Herring Puppets will perform Saturday, Oct. 12.
The Patagonia Fall Festival is a multicultural event with Chinese dance, military brass band music, Polish dance, Flamenco and Balkan-Aegean music. Jam Pak, a children’s blues and bluegrass band, will perform.
There will also be several strolling performances, including juggling, magic, hula hooping and a kid’s musical parade.
“There’s something for everybody at fall festival,” Staples said.
The festival also features annual fundraising events for the Patagonia Public Library and Patagonia Volunteer Fire & Rescue.
The Patagonia Volunteer Fire Department will host a cook-off that includes a burger burn, and there will be a beer garden.
Part of the attraction is that Patagonia will offer a relative respite from the unrelenting Tucson heat. “It’s a couple degrees cooler,” Staples said. “It’ll be shady at the park, which is lush and pretty. You’ll also experience a small-town feel here.”
35th Patagonia Fall Festival
WHEN: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, and Sunday, Oct. 13
WHERE: Patagonia Town Park, 325 McKeown Avenue, Patagonia
COST:Free admission
INFO: patagoniafallfestival.org
This article appears in Oct 3-9, 2024.
