FUN FOR THE FAMILY Bryant gears up for 22nd Fall Fest

By BY HANNAH BURNEY Staff Writer

Photo by submitted photo

1-year-old Jace Malone sprints to the finish line during the baby crawl at the Bryant Fall Fest 2008. This year's event will be held Saturday at Mills Park beginning at 8 a.m.

ADVERSTISMENT

TRI-LAKES AREA — The Bryant Fall Fest will celebrate its 22nd year with several new activities including the Biggest Baddest ATV contest, archery contest, a geocache and Joe Dirt look-alike contest.

"There are so many new things this year I don't know where to start," said Rae Ann Fields, who works for the Bryant Area Chamber of Commerce.

The festival will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Mills Park in Bryant. There is no admission fee, except for KidZland armbands, and no parking fee for the festival.

After the success of the Hannah Montana look-alike contest last year, Fields said parents voiced a need for a competition for boys to participate in and decided on the Joe Dirt look-alike competition.

The Hannah Montana contest will be at 3 p.m., and the Joe Dirt competition will follow at 3:30 p.m. on the IberiaBank stage.

"I thought the Hannah Montana competition was the star of the show last year," Fields said.

The festival will also bring back KidZland for children, which will feature a train ride, bounce house, obstacle course, professional face painting, balloon animals and an 18-foot slide.

Armbands are $15. Separate tickets must be purchased for face painting, balloon animals and the train ride.

Also new to the festival is the Outdoor Adventure Area, which will host the fishing contest. Fields said this area will be set away from other activities in the park to allow ample space for the outdoor activities.

"We've been wanting to create an area like this for some time, so we're excited to bring that to the festival this year," she said.

Kiosks with maps will be set up throughout the park to guide participants to each festival area.

Another highlight is the geocache, sponsored by the Bryant Parks and Recreation Department. A geocache is a type of scavenger hunt in which participants use a GPS device to locate caches of "treasure." Eig ht caches w i l l be placed around Mills Park for scavenger hunters to find using a combination of clues and GPS coordinates.

Jeremy Lemons, parks director, said in a press release, "It's a little different from the typical geocache scenario where you would find the cache and replace the contents of the container with your own 'prizes' for the next person to find. Instead, we have containers only there on Fall Fest Day, and you keep the container and the prize." Clues and coordinates are on the Chamber Web site at www.bryantar.com. Select "registrations" from the blue bar at the top of the page and then click geocaching. Registration forms for all other Fall Fest competitions are under the "registrations" link on the Chamber Web site.

Fields said most competitors could register the day of the festival. Competitors in the ATV competition need to register in advance.

"My caution to people would be to get there before or after the parade enters the park at 9 a.m. to avoid being caught in traffic," Fields said.

For more information, call the Bryant Chamber at (501) 847-4702 or visit www.bryant-ar.com.

Bryant Fall Fest Schedule of Events

8 a.m. - Booths open at Mills Park

8:15 a.m. - Parade line-up at Bryant Middle School

9 a.m. - Parade begins on Reynolds at Sullivan; KidZland opens; announce

ments begin on IberiaBank stage; fishing contest begins at the Outdoor Adven

ture Area; baked goods drop off at the IberiaBank stage; car show registration

opens at the car show tent, hosted by Rock City Cruisers, for information call

Shane Shelton at (501) 315-3881 or John Harris at (501) 847-4114 or (501)

529-7424. This event will benefit the Boys and Girls club of Bryant and the

Bryant Senior Center; parade enters the park

9:35 a.m. - Bryant High Air Force Jr. ROTC Color Guard on IberiaBank

Stage

9:40 -10:30 a.m. - Bryant High School Varsity Dance; Bryant High School

Varsity Cheer; Bryant High School Junior Varsity Cheer; Bryant Middle School

seventh-grade dance; Bryant Middle School eighth-grade dance; Bryant Middle

School seventh-grade cheer; Bryant Middle School eighth-grade cheer; Bethel

Middle School seventh-grade dance; Bethel Middle School eighth-grade dance;

Bethel Middle School seventh-grade cheer; Bethel Middle School eighth-grade

cheer all on the IberiaBank Stage. In the event of bad weather, routines may

be moved up or condensed.

10:30 a.m. - Cake auction at IberiaBank Stage

11 a.m. - Jazz and Country Singer Marie Pinkerton at IberiaBank Stage;

2-on-2 basketball registration at the basketball courts

11:30 a.m. - Honeybees Choir, Bryant High School at IberiaBank Stage

11:45 a.m. - Baby Crawl Contest at the First Security Contest Area

noon to 1 p.m. - Southern Exposure at the IberiaBank stage

noon - 2-on-2 basketball at the basketball courts

1 p.m. - Hula hoop contest at the First Security Contest Area; BK Dance at

the IberiaBank Stage

1:30 p.m. - Hot dog-eating contest at the IberiaBankStage; car show trophies

announced at the car show tent

2-3 p.m. - Southern Exposure at the IberiaBankStage

2:30 p.m. - Punt, Pass & Kick Competition at the Punt Pass Kick area

3 p.m. - Hannah Montana look-alike contest at the IberiaBank Stage

3:30 p.m. - Joe Dirt look-alike and air guitar contest at the IberiaBank Stage

Tri-Lakes, Pages 63 on 09/24/2009

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