Today's Adventures
Sep. 19th, 2025 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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flaneursToday we went to the Autumn Fest in Marshall. It was an evening event, and the day had cooled off considerably, so it was quite pleasant. We were lucky to miss the rain there -- it rained a bit at home and we drove through several showers. This event continues on Saturday and Sunday if you want to catch it, and it is well worth attending if you're in Illinois this weekend looking for something to do.
It was set up around the courthouse square, same as the farmer's market this summer, but a lot bigger. They had blocked off not only the square itself but about a block farther of each street. While this closed a much larger space than the actual booths filled, I think it was a good choice because there were so many people walking and kids playing around. It created a bigger safety buffer away from traffic.
They had good amenities too. In addition to the permanent public toilets, they had extra porta-potties across from at least two of the corners. There were also signs up for a mother-child comfort station. Now that's something that any event organizer could offer -- or even an individual booth, if your goods or services target that audience. The event organizers had a booth out, and it was lined with signs advertising their sponsors, which I thought was a nice touch. There was live music at the gazebo on the courthouse lawn, and at least one other band set up in the parking lot behind a bar -- of which the gazebo was higher quality.
The entire outer lineup was all food: three whole blocks of food trucks and booths on three sides across the street from the courthouse. Most of it was standard fair food, but there was also a Filipino kebab stand, a Mexican food truck, and an actual Chicago-style hot dog stand. :D We got supper at the Frankly Delicious hot dog stand. Among his offerings were Chicago dogs, coney dogs, Seattle dogs, and just all the toppings without the dog for a vegetarian option. This was just his third event, and he's got room to grow. My partner Doug got a coney dog. I got just a plain hot dog with ketchup and shredded dill pickles. All-beef hot dogs, too, they were really good. Happily this guy is a Marshall resident, so we're really hoping to see him again because we like this town for events.
The inner lineup had the other vendors. Most of them were on the courthouse lawn adjacent to the sidewalk. But there were also inner-inner-loops, everywhere the sidewalk or a driveway went up to the courthouse, more vendors were set up around that. They really packed a lot of people into the available space. So we got to see a bunch of different things.
Idream icreate is an Illinois extension program from the University of Illinois. It offers arts and crafts programs for K-12 students with an emphasis on dreams and creativity, including entrepreneurship opportunities for kids who want to start their own business.
National Road Quilt Guild had a raffle going. They serve Clark County and surrounding areas, making quilts for veterans and other folks, doing workshops and such. I know how to quilt, but the most I usually do is applique things on a shirt or tabard. Come to think of it, I've had such a hard time finding decent vests or cardigans, maybe I should just quilt one. I'm mostly a fan of the art form and enjoy going to quilt shows. If you're lonely, though, quilters make excellent company.
Meraki Glassworks offered stained glass. There were several rainbow bars, some butterflies, earrings, and more.
T & K Custom Woodworks was there with C-tables, end tables, cutting boards, and other goodies. Some of theirs have resinwork in the wood to fill gaps or fractal tracings. I've seen them at other events.
K's Creations was a fibercraft booth. What caught my attention was the sign, "$5 and Under Table." If you have a range of products, highlighting your bargain section can help people find it.
2 Brothers Honey Bees was selling honey and other bee products such as beeswax. Sadly I didn't buy any as we're well stocked on honey at the moment, but it's nice to know that Marshall has a supplier of local honey. The card also says they specialize in queens and nucs, for anyone into beekeeping.
Wild Wood Woodworking also had cutting boards and assorted wooden crafts such as game boards.
Sweet Tooth Tati had a variety of cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and other desserts. The red velvet brownies were the old-fashioned kind made without food coloring, with a creamy chocolate flavor. We got one and it was wonderful.
I bought a tie-dye T-shirt from Jan Nicole Creations. The top is dark blue and purple, then it goes down to orange and yellow in kind of a chevron pattern, and the bottom is purple and dark blue again. It's quite vivid and makes me think of autumn. :D
We also spotted a favorite dealer of freeze-dried candy, Whispering Pines Farm. We got a carton of saltwater taffy to share. My partner Doug also got a bag of Bit-o-Honey and a bag of Peeps.
There were only a few downsides. One was that it got pretty dark. The streetlights turned on; they seemed to shine but not illuminate, so I suspect LED. Some tents had carnival lights but others didn't, so I wound up skipping the ones where I couldn't see the wares. There was a drone overhead, which was absolutely nerve-wracking. I hate those things. Someone was selling loud, shrill whistles that a bunch of children had bought and were blowing, which made a miserable racket.
On the way out, we stopped at the Cobblers and Cream food truck for dessert. They had various flavors of ice cream, cobbler, and other things. We got blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. It was delicious.
Overall, the Autumn Fest was delightful and we had a great time. I think we spent about two hours walking around it.
Marshall is a pretty town even at night. Some of the buildings had carnival lights or wall-crawler lights or colored porch lights. One corner building caught my eye because it was just so big. Narrow but deep, two stories above the retail floor and each of those upper floors had 8 windows. You could fit two 2-bedroom apartments up there or one 4-bedroom easily. One church had a stained glass window of a dove lit from the inside. I don't see moon windows often -- the kind meant to be seen at night from outside -- but they're very eye-catching. Some of the stores were open late to capitalize on foot traffic from the event, but by then we were just too tired to visit any of them.
One of these days, I really want to get out to Marshall with my camera and photograph all the painted lion statues around the square. I think there are two or three dozen of the things. It'll have to wait for milder weather, though.
It was set up around the courthouse square, same as the farmer's market this summer, but a lot bigger. They had blocked off not only the square itself but about a block farther of each street. While this closed a much larger space than the actual booths filled, I think it was a good choice because there were so many people walking and kids playing around. It created a bigger safety buffer away from traffic.
They had good amenities too. In addition to the permanent public toilets, they had extra porta-potties across from at least two of the corners. There were also signs up for a mother-child comfort station. Now that's something that any event organizer could offer -- or even an individual booth, if your goods or services target that audience. The event organizers had a booth out, and it was lined with signs advertising their sponsors, which I thought was a nice touch. There was live music at the gazebo on the courthouse lawn, and at least one other band set up in the parking lot behind a bar -- of which the gazebo was higher quality.
The entire outer lineup was all food: three whole blocks of food trucks and booths on three sides across the street from the courthouse. Most of it was standard fair food, but there was also a Filipino kebab stand, a Mexican food truck, and an actual Chicago-style hot dog stand. :D We got supper at the Frankly Delicious hot dog stand. Among his offerings were Chicago dogs, coney dogs, Seattle dogs, and just all the toppings without the dog for a vegetarian option. This was just his third event, and he's got room to grow. My partner Doug got a coney dog. I got just a plain hot dog with ketchup and shredded dill pickles. All-beef hot dogs, too, they were really good. Happily this guy is a Marshall resident, so we're really hoping to see him again because we like this town for events.
The inner lineup had the other vendors. Most of them were on the courthouse lawn adjacent to the sidewalk. But there were also inner-inner-loops, everywhere the sidewalk or a driveway went up to the courthouse, more vendors were set up around that. They really packed a lot of people into the available space. So we got to see a bunch of different things.
Idream icreate is an Illinois extension program from the University of Illinois. It offers arts and crafts programs for K-12 students with an emphasis on dreams and creativity, including entrepreneurship opportunities for kids who want to start their own business.
National Road Quilt Guild had a raffle going. They serve Clark County and surrounding areas, making quilts for veterans and other folks, doing workshops and such. I know how to quilt, but the most I usually do is applique things on a shirt or tabard. Come to think of it, I've had such a hard time finding decent vests or cardigans, maybe I should just quilt one. I'm mostly a fan of the art form and enjoy going to quilt shows. If you're lonely, though, quilters make excellent company.
Meraki Glassworks offered stained glass. There were several rainbow bars, some butterflies, earrings, and more.
T & K Custom Woodworks was there with C-tables, end tables, cutting boards, and other goodies. Some of theirs have resinwork in the wood to fill gaps or fractal tracings. I've seen them at other events.
K's Creations was a fibercraft booth. What caught my attention was the sign, "$5 and Under Table." If you have a range of products, highlighting your bargain section can help people find it.
2 Brothers Honey Bees was selling honey and other bee products such as beeswax. Sadly I didn't buy any as we're well stocked on honey at the moment, but it's nice to know that Marshall has a supplier of local honey. The card also says they specialize in queens and nucs, for anyone into beekeeping.
Wild Wood Woodworking also had cutting boards and assorted wooden crafts such as game boards.
Sweet Tooth Tati had a variety of cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and other desserts. The red velvet brownies were the old-fashioned kind made without food coloring, with a creamy chocolate flavor. We got one and it was wonderful.
I bought a tie-dye T-shirt from Jan Nicole Creations. The top is dark blue and purple, then it goes down to orange and yellow in kind of a chevron pattern, and the bottom is purple and dark blue again. It's quite vivid and makes me think of autumn. :D
We also spotted a favorite dealer of freeze-dried candy, Whispering Pines Farm. We got a carton of saltwater taffy to share. My partner Doug also got a bag of Bit-o-Honey and a bag of Peeps.
There were only a few downsides. One was that it got pretty dark. The streetlights turned on; they seemed to shine but not illuminate, so I suspect LED. Some tents had carnival lights but others didn't, so I wound up skipping the ones where I couldn't see the wares. There was a drone overhead, which was absolutely nerve-wracking. I hate those things. Someone was selling loud, shrill whistles that a bunch of children had bought and were blowing, which made a miserable racket.
On the way out, we stopped at the Cobblers and Cream food truck for dessert. They had various flavors of ice cream, cobbler, and other things. We got blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. It was delicious.
Overall, the Autumn Fest was delightful and we had a great time. I think we spent about two hours walking around it.
Marshall is a pretty town even at night. Some of the buildings had carnival lights or wall-crawler lights or colored porch lights. One corner building caught my eye because it was just so big. Narrow but deep, two stories above the retail floor and each of those upper floors had 8 windows. You could fit two 2-bedroom apartments up there or one 4-bedroom easily. One church had a stained glass window of a dove lit from the inside. I don't see moon windows often -- the kind meant to be seen at night from outside -- but they're very eye-catching. Some of the stores were open late to capitalize on foot traffic from the event, but by then we were just too tired to visit any of them.
One of these days, I really want to get out to Marshall with my camera and photograph all the painted lion statues around the square. I think there are two or three dozen of the things. It'll have to wait for milder weather, though.
