Salem, OR – A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village celebrates the harvest season with the 13th Annual Harvest Festival and Pumpkin Merriment, its signature fall event, October 15. Visitors will enjoy family-friendly activities, crafts and entertainment hosted at the children’s museum on Saturday, October 15 from noon to 8 p.m.
This is the 8th year live entertainment will be provided by LuAnn Ritts and her band Cash and Company. They perform as the festival culminates with a grand lighting of hundreds of carved pumpkins displayed beneath the Marion Street Bridge. Ritts has invited several musician friends from Guthrie Park Community Center in Dallas to join her during the festival. Sally Clark on mandolin and guitar and Jim Hockenhull on fiddle, together with Ritts, form what she refers to as ‘the house band.’
New this year is bilingual singer/song writer, Clare Norelle. Norelle has traveled and performed around the world singing and entertaining in several languages. Norelle encourages children and their families to sing, move and laugh together with an entertaining combination of stories and songs presented bilingually in Spanish and English.
Also new on the scene is Byron Ramseyer, from Running Brook Farms in Stayton. He brings his lasso and roping expertise to the festival so visitors can enjoy demonstrations and perhaps try their hand at some roping.
Admission to the event includes full access to the museum and the Outdoor Discovery Center. The museum will be filled with hands-on crafts and activities, including face painting, a 4-H farm animal petting zoo, straw bale maze, pumpkin carving and a fresh apple cider press. Bicycle taxi hay rides along Riverfront Park will also be available to visitors courtesy of Salem Bicycle Taxi.
Admission ranges from $3 for members to $10 for nonmembers, with a $3 discount for anyone who brings a carved pumpkin to add to the display. Event admission is available for purchase at the gate only on the day of the event. The festival is sponsored by presenting sponsors Foresters and McDonald Orthodontics and by supporting sponsors Oregon College Education Fund and Roth’s Fresh Markets.
Source: A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village www.acgilbert.org