By Coben Scott
Sept. 28 marked another year for the annual Falcon Harvest Festival, held at Falcon High School from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The place was packed. By 10:30 a.m., cars were already parking along the side streets and families were enthusiastic about seeing what the event was all about.
There was a dedicated food section, with a variety of food trucks, along with many picnic tables so visitors could relax and enjoy their food. Their choices ranged from Pink Floyd-inspired cuisine to snow cones by Kona Ice.
Vendor tents took up the majority of the student parking lot, with seven rows of unique goods and services. Almost every vendor was local to the Falcon area. There were wolf dogs and crochet frogs, and a crowd that gathered at the booth of Ali Haselhorst, owner of Momma’s Elderberry Syrup, and a Peyton res-ident. Haselhorst started growing elderberries 10 years ago while her kids were little as a way to treat their colds. “What started as a hobby just kind of became a fun job,” she said. The same can be said for most of the vendors as the bulk of sellers at the festival were advertising niche home crafts and goods.
Outside of knickknaks and snacks, there was plenty of entertainment. The kids corner drew in most families. Towering over everything was an inflat-able slide/training course that massed dozens of children in line. Drawing the teenage crowd was an inflatable target wall, where the objective was to throw a ball as close to the bullseye as possible. Between the inflatables was a photo-op with superheroes Deadpool and Batman, next to their Polaris Slingshot. Up-sized games of Connect Four, Jenga and other classic family games were pro-vided. A petting zoo delighted all age groups. People waited to get in the pens to see the likes of donkeys, dogs and goats
On the opposite end, live music echoed throughout the festival, garnering mild head banging and foot tapping from the sea of people.
Two fire trucks from the Falcon Fire Protection District were parked on the north end of the lots, where firefighters displayed their gear and tools. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office brought their swat car out to show off to the public.
The turnout of this event proved to be one of the larger crowds in recent years, said many of the vendors. Kevin and Jennifer Braun of Blackout Electric and event sponsors, said, “It’s really great to see this turnout of people, it’s been a great day for everyone it seems.” From free pumpkins to free estimates, every demographic of people had smiles on their faces and goods in their hands as they walked through the event.
