Attendees walk booth to booth at the fall festival in 2015.

With a display of life-sized museum quality dinosaur models, eight hours of free musical entertainment, a petting zoo and other attractions, the Coal Country Chamber of Commerce’s 18th annual Fall Festival ushers in the autumn season from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 24, in Benld’s City Park. The event also features upward of 65 arts and crafts exhibitors, a variety of food vendors and free rides on the CCCC Choo Choo Train.

“We like to think of our Fall Festival as a last fling of the summer or first event of the fall where area families can get out, have some fun and some great food before the cooler weather arrives,” said Mickey Robinson, CCCC Executive Director. “We try to have attractions to appeal to all ages to bring a lot of people into the area and promote our region as a great place to do business.”

In conjunction with the Fall Festival, CCCC will sponsor the 11th annual Tour de Coal bike ride, a non-competitive biking event that draws nearly 300 riders every year, according to Robinson. The ride offers three route options ranging from 13 to nearly 65 miles.

Depending upon the weather, Robinson said the Festival is expected to draw crowds of 9,000 or more.

“It all depends on the weather,” he said. “If the weather is nice to us, I’m projecting 9,000. That’s a big difference from our first year 18 years ago when we had more volunteers in the park than we had visitors.”

DINOSAURS AND REINDEER

Highlighting the Fall Festival this year will be a display of life-sized dinosaur models created by CM Studio, a local company that supplies scientifically correct dinosaur models for museums and other venues. CM Studio models currently are on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the Museum of Rockies in Colorado and other world class museums in the U.S. and abroad.

“This is a rare opportunity for people to see work from a local studio that they otherwise would have to travel to a museum to experience,” said Robinson. “Kids especially will be fascinated by these highly detailed, life-like models.”

The studio plans to have on display a life-sized Tyrannosaurus Rex head, along with other species ranging from the chicken-sized Compsognathus to the seven-foot Utahraptor, a larger cousin of Jurassic Park’s famed Velociraptors.

Youngsters also will enjoy the Festival’s free petting zoo featuring pygmy goats, a variety of exotic species and live Alaskan reindeer. The display will provide an opportunity for children and adults to learn more about a variety of animals and get an up close look at them. Featured animals include water buffalo, llamas, a camel and bison.

Visitors are welcome to view the animals or enter the petting area for free. Those who want to feed the animals can purchase a small cup of carrots for a moderate price.

Between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m., biology students from Blackburn College will be at the park with a variety of snakes and reptiles that visitors can view, or hold and handle. The group typically brings exotic species, as well as domestic species such as black rat snakes and corn snakes.

FREE ENTERTAINMENT

Robinson said the Chamber of Commerce is especially proud to present more than eight hours of free musical entertainment on the stage under the park pavilion, highlighted by a three-hour “Memories of Elvis” show featuring Elvis Presley impersonator Steve Davis. Backed up by the Mid-South Revival Band, Davis’ Elvis show also features Thomas Hickey as Buddy Holly and Anna Blair, who performs as Patsy Cline.

“Steve Davis has been a featured performer for us from the beginning of the festival,” Robinson said. “He has a following that will travel to see him wherever he appears and he always attracts a large crowd.”

A resident of St. Louis, Davis has spent more than 20 years perfecting his channeling of the Elvis persona. The “Memories of Elvis” concert features exhaustively researched costumes and performances that capture every nuance of the King of Rock of Roll’s stage presence. The show traces Elvis’ musical career from his early recordings at Sun Recordings in Memphis through his Las Vegas Showroom appearances later in his career. Calling his concert an “experience” rather than a performance, Davis says homage to Elvis has been complimented by many audience members who actually saw Elvis in concert before his untimely death in the 1970s.

A high school math teacher, Hickey began performing as Buddy Holly as an opening act for the Memories of Elvis show in 2004. Blair is a trained actor who has been a teaching artist for the Shakespeare Festival St. Louis for the past six years. She says she is thrilled to portray Patsy Cline because Cline was her late mother’s favorite singer.

Performing from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., immediately prior to the Memories of Elvis Show, will be Gillespie native Amy Hailstone with her “Live from Nashville” country show.

“Last year, we had her scheduled at 10 o’clock and before she went on stage she had more than 600 people packed into the pavilion,” Robinson noted.

Hailstone was surrounded by music of all types as she was growing up in Gillespie. Her father performed with a popular local band that played pop, rock and soul music at local venues throughout the area, and those influences are clearly heard in her music today. Hailstone began her career as a vocalist and lead guitarist for a circuit band playing six nights a week in hotel lounges. She later graduated with honors in Minneapolis as a music technician. A vocal injury prompted her move to Nashville where she sought the care of the Vanderbilt Voice Center. Since that time, she has gained a reputation in Nashville as a singer, songwriter and guitarist. Her appearance in Benld closely coincides with the release of her new CD recording “The Sleeping Dogs Sessions,” which features her singing and playing her own songs.

Leading into Hailstone’s performance will be the Dixie Dudes and Dance, a local band that originally formed 30 years ago at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey. Well-known to local audiences, the band plays not only Dixieland music but also rock and roll and dance tunes. Dixie Dudes and Dance will take the stage for 90 minutes starting at 10 a.m.

Even before the festival officially gets underway, vocalist Joe Powell will begin performing at 7 a.m., singing popular ballads and country songs with occasional interludes of whistling. Powell will be onstage until 10 a.m., serenading vendors and exhibitors as they get set up for the day’s festivities.

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Robinson said those attending the festival are welcome to bring lawn chairs to sit just outside the pavilion and listen to the entertainment. As always, dancing is encouraged on the dance floor directly in front of the stage.

ARTS AND CRAFTS

A centerpiece of the Fall Festival is a large collection of vendors and exhibitors selling arts and craft items, vintage furniture and knick-knacks, and other items.

“Our Fall Festival provides an opportunity for people to do some early Christmas shopping for family members and friends, or pick up some unique decorating items to decorate their homes for fall and for the upcoming holidays,” Robinson said. “We’re very picky about our vendors and some of the items offered are items people are not likely to see at other festivals in the area. About two-thirds of our exhibitors are returning from previous years and we have a little of everything for everyone.”

An area produce merchant will arrive with more than 500 pumpkins of various sizes, along with gourds, decorative squash and cider. Returning for her sixth year at the festival, an area woman will sell hand-made decorated snowmen for Christmas decorating. Other exhibitors will have for sale hand-made rag rugs, hand-made jewelry, vintage furniture and hand-made furniture.

One vendor will have hand-made Christmas wreaths and grave blankets.

“They are beautiful,” Robinson said of the wreaths and blankets. “They normally sell out early and start taking orders.”

The Illinois Valley Economic Development Corp’s Rehabilitation Center will have a large display of decorative items for fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas that are hand-made by the Center’s clients. The Center’s appearance at the Fall Festival is its largest fund-raiser of the year, according to Robinson.

Rehabilitation Center clients also were responsible in 2003 for building the CCCC Choo Choo that will offer free rides throughout the day.

There also will be some “commercial” exhibitors selling such things as Watkins products, Tupperware, handbags, culinary items and other products.

A mission of the Coal Country Chamber of Commerce is to bring people from outside the area to see what local businesses have to offer. To that end, several local businesses also will sponsor exhibits during the Festival to promote their products and services.

“Coal Country Chamber of Commerce represents businesses located within Community Unit School District 7,” Robinson said. “The Fall Festival is one way we can fulfill our mission to bring new customers to the area to see what outstanding businesses we have to offer.”

As in past years, the Festival will feature a large food court serving everything from “fair foods” to local specialties.

Members of Holy Dormition of the Theotokos Russian Orthodox Church, Benld, will sell traditional cabbage rolls, a specialty of the Russian heritage. A Royal Lakes church will offer barbecued ribs and pork steaks, expecting to go through nearly 500 pounds of meat for the day.

Elsewhere in the food court, vendors will offer ice cream novelties, deep fried candy bars, funnel cakes and soft pretzels. A kettle korn vendor returning for his 17th year expects to go through more than 500 pounds of kettle corn during the day.

CCCC will operate a food stand at the north end of the main pavilion, offering Italian beef sandwiches, “little smokies,” hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and soft drinks.

“When you purchase food from the Chamber of Commerce stand, the proceeds will go back into the Fall Festival for next year,” Robinson noted.

Riders who participate in the Tour de Coal bike ride earlier in the day will receive tickets for a free sandwich and beverage from the CCCC stand, Robinson said. Upward of 75 percent of the riders come to the park for lunch and many of them stay to visit exhibitors and enjoy the free entertainment, according to Robinson.

TOUR DE COAL

Kicking off the day will be the annual Tour de Coal bike ride, held in conjunction with the Fall Festival for the past decade. Riders may choose from 13.6-mile family ride, a 35-mile ride for those with moderate ability and a 64.8-mile “metric century” for experienced riders who want a challenge. Metric mile riders may choose to participate in a mass start at 7 a.m. if they choose. Other riders may leave the starting point at Benld City Hall on Central Avenue as soon as they are registered for the ride.

Advance registration is available active.com, or riders can register the morning of the ride. Advance registration is $20 per individual or $45 per family. On the day of the ride, registration will be $25 per person or $50 per family. Those who register prior to Sept. 17 are guaranteed to receive a 2016 Tour de Coal t-shirt to commemorate their ride.

Each of the rides will offer rest stops offering water, oatmeal cookies and bananas.

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Robinson said the annual, non-competitive ride annually attracts nearly 300 riders who come from all over the nation to participate.

“We have a lot of riders who are associated with Washington University or UMSL in St. Louis,” he said, “and we have riders who come from as far away as Waco, Texas, and Louisville, Kentucky.”

For the convenience of riders who have to travel to Benld, overnight camping is available at Benld City Park, just a block north of the starting line. Robinson said seven riders already have made reservations to camp. Others who want to reserve campsites can contact Robinson at (217) 710-5218 or mrer@madisontelco.com.

A portion of the Tour de Coal proceeds will benefit the local Partnership for Education Excellence, which helps fund educational initiatives for local school students. The remaining proceeds will go to the CCCC for community improvement.

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