Jul 13, 2023
LE ROY — The Oatka Festival that returns this weekend is a little larger than the festival put together last year.
“We have expanded this year. We have over 65 craft vendors, which is more than ever. We are doing a Duck Pluck this year instead of the duck derby,” said Kelsey Walther, who did marketing Our the festival. “The kids’ area has expanded greatly, with a huge, free, kids play area with bubbles, chalk, water tables, bracelet making, coloring, just to name a few things. We added a kids activity tent with a full schedule of shows under there, including a princess and superhero show, two Art of Mandy classes, a magic show and more.”
The schedule, which may be found on the Oatka Festival Facebook page, includes the parade at 11 a.m. Saturday. There will be plenty of food vendors and music throughout the day Saturday. On Sunday, events will include a dunk booth, fishing derby and car show. There will be an inflatable obstacle course and bounce house. and Mr. Scribbles will make an appearance both days. The festival is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days in Trigon Park.
“We will also be selling Oatka festival shirts at our information booth,” Walther said. “I’m not sure the last time these were sold at a festival, but I know it’s been awhile so we’re excited to bring this back.”
The parade is the most popular event, she said.
“Then everyone heads into the festival for a fun Saturday. I don’t know an exact number of how many people we see come through our festival, but I know it’s a lot,” Walther said. “I’m not sure if any of the bands are new, but we did add a band to the gazebo on the creek bank this year so patrons can listen to music there and under the music tent.”
The festival is free for everyone to attend and wouldn’t be possible without sponsors and community generosity, she said. The girls’ basketball team will run the dunk booth as its fundraiser.
Festival Chair Kate Flint said that in 2022, the festival was coming back after COVID.
“It was a great festival. We’re just hoping to add to it every year,” Flint said. “We just took the feedback from last year and added a few things. We want to bring back some more community involvement this year. We want to keep growing it to be community-based. The Duck Pluck was the Duck Derby in years past, but we changed it up for the varsity wrestling team. They work the Duck Pluck and they get the profits for their profits for the year.”
