Community fall festival will take to the streets in Port Oct. 9

Port Main Street Inc. will host its annual community street festival on Saturday, Oct. 9.

Main Street Executive Director Kristina Tadeo said the festival will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Franklin Street and the 100 block of East Grand Avenue.

“We’ll have all the great, fun things you think of when you think of fall,” Tadeo said, mentioning apples, pumpkins and gourds. 

“I think it’ll be really nice to have those two things — the street festival and fall — collide.”

The festival will have its traditional amenities, including music stages on the north and south ends of the grounds, and be complemented by the farmers market, which will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on East Main Street.

“Many of the vendors will stay (for the festival rather than closing shop at the usual 1 p.m.),” Tadeo said.

Fall Street Festival, as it will be called, will represent a larger version of Main Street’s fall fest, she added.

Specific plans for the festival are still being finalized, Tadeo said.

Community Street Festival is held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, but the pandemic forced its cancellation last year and its postponement this year,.

“I’m just happy we didn’t have to cancel it for another year, just postpone it,” Tadeo said, adding autumn weather may be more hospitable.

Community Street Festival has been a city tradition since its inception in 2008, when the inaugural event was held to celebrate the grand reopening of the newly reconstructed Franklin Street.

Residents were so happy with the event that they petitioned Main Street to make the festival an annual celebration to open the summer season.

Tadeo said Community Street Festival will return next year, although the Main Street board of directors has not determined if it will be a fall or spring event.