There will be plenty to do Friday evening and Saturday morning in Emporia with the Main Street Fall Fest and the Emporia State University Homecoming parade.
Kayla Oney, director of Emporia Main Street, said the organization’s Fall Fest will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday in the parking lot at Seventh Avenue and Merchant Street. The event will include activities for all ages. There will be food vendors, including Wings, Wheat State Pizza, Sweet Granada and Bad Ol’ Bern’s.
The Emporia Arts Council will be on hand to offer pumpkin painting. The Emporia State University Psychology Club will do face-painting.
A live band, “Between the Lines,” will play. Oney said the band played at this summer’s Live in the Lot.
Friday night also will offer horse-drawn hayrack rides. Rides will be $5 a person.
From 9 p.m. to midnight, there will be a DJ and dance geared toward ESU students. Oney said that while the dance targets ESU students, the public is invited to attend.
In case of bad weather, the Fall Fest will be canceled because of the risk to participants and electrical equipment.
ESU’s Homecoming parade will start at 10 a.m. on Saturday on Commercial Street downtown. This year’s theme is “green” and will feature walking floats, Oney said. A pep rally will follow the parade. The pep rally will be held on Circle Drive on campus at 12th Avenue and Commercial Street.
“They (parade participants) want everybody to follow them and watch,” Oney said.
The parade staging area will be in the parking lot behind the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office.
In preparation for Homecoming week at ESU, members of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority have decorated windows throughout downtown Emporia.