GLOVERSVILLE – For the many costumed children attending the 10th annual Gloversville Fall Fest on Saturday, you could have easily renamed the event “Halloween: Part 1.”
Gloversville resident Henry Hallenbeck, 7, took home enough candy given away by the 54 Fall Fest vendors to fill his trick-or-treat basket, something he and his mom hope he’ll do again during trick-or-treating or the whole city deal. 31.
Hallenbeck dressed up as Star Wars bounty hunter “The Mandalorian,” with an animatronic Grogu, better known as “Baby Yoda,” helping him take home the Fall Fest trophy’s gold headless skeleton for the funniest costume.
“I thought it would be nice and cool to be the Mandalorian, and baby Yoda wanted to go trick-or-treating!” Hallenbeck said standing under the gazebo at Trial Station Park, after the costume contest judging.
The 10th Annual Fall Festival, the last of the Gloversville Recreation Commission’s events for 2022, was a free event with many fall-themed activities, including pumpkin painting, various bounce houses and sack races of potatoes, including a race with four Gloversville police officers.
Recreation Commission board member Jordan Twardy, owner of event planning firm Jurassik Jamz Entertainment, served as master of ceremonies for the event. Twardy explained the basis of the costume contest, which included boy and girl costume trophies for funniest, scariest and most creative costume categories.
Gloversville resident Carolyn Leveille was the mother of the two children who won the scariest costume award, 8-year-old Ravyn, who dressed as a “female Chucky doll,” and her younger sister Violette, 3 years, who fooled the judges into believing he was. a boy dressed in a werewolf costume.
“She really wanted to win the contest,” Ravyn said of her sister.
Twardy said one of the new additions to Fall Fest was JAK The Visual Deception Artist who wowed attendees with his stunts and illusions. Twardy said Saturday’s cloudy weather and cool temperature couldn’t dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm.
“We had a lot of people here, and I think we had a lot more costumes than last year,” she said.
The large attendance at the Fall Festival was helpful for both the festival’s for-profit vendors and non-profits looking to raise money. Tanyalynnette Grimes, CEO of the Micropolis Development Group, had three vendor tables running at Fall Fest, one each for the Happy Mug Cafe, the Pines Restaurant at Kingsboro Golf Club and the Community Foundation of the Adirondack Foothills, which runs the annual festival . Festival of Hope Thanksgiving free food delivery.
Grimes said she sold about $1,000 worth of candy apples at her Community Foundation table, the proceeds of which will go toward the cost of this year’s Festival of Hope.
“Turkeys are three times more expensive than last year, so last year we did everything for about $24,000, and this year it’s going to be $43,000 for the exact same amount of stuff,” he said.
