Coal City Fall Festival grows to include larger craft fair, new events

The Coal City Fall Festival brings family fun to Downtown Coal City starting Friday night on Sept. 15 and all day on Saturday, Sept. 16, with touch-a-truck, inflatables, food vendors, and more.

Southbound Chicago opens up the festivities at 6 p.m. Friday at Bob’s Advanced Tire and Auto, 60 E. Chestnut St., with a kickoff for Saturday’s events taking place down Broadway Street, both at Campbell Park and at the corner of Broadway Street and Chestnut Street.

Returning this year is the craft fair, a larger event returning from the previous Oktoberfest.

Sarah Beach, with the Village of Coal City, said the craft fair is known as Maker’s Court and will feature many local crafters and artists from the area. There are also new family-friendly attractions like a rock wall and a new giant version of Hungry Hungry Hippos. Beach hasn’t seen the game yet, but she said it’s an interactive game where the players are the hippos. Players sit on a scooter and go against others to collect as many balls as possible.

Beach also said there would be many, many food trucks, local restaurants and churches providing food.

“We’re calling it Food Truck Alley this year,” Beach said. “There’s so much more food than we’ve ever had in the past.”

Then there’s the car show, which takes place from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., filling the downtown with various classic and show cars.

There will also be voting for the Coal City Citizen of the Year, for which nomination applications are available at coalcity-il.gov. The winner will be announced at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, followed by the Megan’s Mission 5K Walk and Run at 6 p.m.

Retro Circus and Bad Choices will close out the night following the 5K, playing live music from 6 p.m. through midnight.

Raffle tickets for a 50/50 will also be available at the Fall Festival.