West Side Nut Club Fall Festival kicks off Sunday with Kids Day

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - The West Side Nut Club’s Fall Festival opened Sunday for a special day for kids and families.

Families packed Franklin Street on Sunday for a chance to have some fun for just the kids.

All the food booths will be open starting Monday in addition to some of the bigger rides, but Sunday’s festivities allowed young kids to take in some of the fun at their own pace without all the crowds.

Several food vendors are on site Sunday still getting their booths ready to serve the thousands of festivalgoers the week will bring.

West Side Nut Club Park Chair Jordan Raven says dedicating the first day to families is to part of the club’s goal of making the festival available to everyone.

“It makes it a little more accessible for everybody, when you get everyone down here with all the food booths open, it becomes crowded, so it’s a lot more family friendly today, and we try to help the families out that have young kids down here,” said Raven.

The festivals food vendors were also hard at work setting up Sunday afternoon to prepare to serve tens of thousands of people throughout the week.

Pastor Rob Baggett said Pleasant Chapel General Baptist Church has had a booth at the festival every year since 2012, and so the volunteers have setting up down to a science.

“There’s stuff up to the last minute, you know, it comes under the wire, but it’s amazing how it all comes together,” he said.

Baggett said his church’s booth serves potato soup, deep-fried Bosco sticks, chicken pot pie, deep-fried PB&J, funnel fries and deep-fried Nutella. With that menu, he said their volunteers have their hands full with set up.

Baggett says everything from getting the oil heated up to last minute health department inspections need to happen before the booth opens for lunch Monday.

Baggett says Pleasant Chapel volunteers will be setting up as early as 7 A.M. on Monday.

The kiddie rides opened at 1 p.m. on Sunday and stayed open for families until 7 p.m.

All rides will open Monday to the rest of the public at 2 p.m.

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