Last Saturday, we went to the Fallsburg Festival. It was held at Fallsburg Park.

The Fallsburg Festival is a yearly fall event featuring art and music and food all held at the beautiful Fallsburg Park north of Lowell.

Fallsburg was a community on the Flat River featuring a saw mill and a grain mill. During the civil war, it also served as a prisoner of war camp. (Imagine those poor boys from Alabama spending a winter in Michigan. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment.)

I say “was” as the only things left of Fallsburg are the one room school, the park, the covered bridge and the historical society. But the Fallsburg Festival does attract thousand of people for the three day event.

Fallsburg Park is a majestic park with rolling hills, trees, brooks, a river and the famous covered bridge. It is a place where many family photos have been shot. If is also the place where my daughter and son-in-law were married. It is a truly wonderful place!

Unlike Lake Odessa’s “art in the park” in the park at Lake Odessa, this event focuses on art and not crafts. There are about a hundred booths featuring art. Art includes jewelry, pottery, glass, tapestry, wood working, paintings, photos, leather and lawn ornaments. Did I miss anything?

Besides the art, there was also music. Bluegrass to be exact. Four and five piece bands consisting of a double bace, a banjo, a guitar, and a mandolin. Each band would play for about 45 minutes, then the next band would come on stage. So, every hour, there would be a new band on stage.

Some of the bands were good and some were not. I noted that they were having trouble mixing the bands. This is in part because they did not have anyone mixing the bands. Mics were live as is and it was up to the bands to mix themselves. Maybe next year, I will volunteer my time.

The smells of the food was fantastic; pulled pork, bratwurst, elephant ears, hot apple dumplings. The only thing that I got to sample was some popcorn that Kathy bought. Kathy would not let me eat anything else.

I am sure that the rest of the food was fantastic! It smelled so good. But hey, I’m a man and I can change if I have to I guess.

After three hours, we had seen everything and it was time to go home. After all, I had popcorn hulls in my teeth and needed a toothpick. Until next year!