This weekend’s Saint Marguerite Fall Festival will host all the traditional fare and festivities — but it will also see the final performance of a local entertainment staple.
As per annual tradition, the Fall Festival will feature live entertainment on both Friday and Saturday nights. Friday will feature a performance by Walk Gregory, a Salt Lake-based entertainer who Fall Festival Chairwoman Debbie McManaman described as a “high-tech, one man circus.”
And Saturday evening will feature what is likely to be the last performance of The Old Man Garage Band, a popular local group that has played various venues throughout the county.
“They told me they plan to hang up their guitars and retire” after this Saturday’s show, McManaman said.
In addition to the free entertainment, the festival will include all its annual traditions — including a kids’ carnival with games, bounce houses and pony rides on Saturday, as well as the ever popular food vendors.
This year’s offerings will feature traditional American carnival fare and a wide variety of Mexican dishes, as well as cuisine from Germany and Guam. There will also be vendors selling baked goods, religious items, and other products. All nine of this year’s vendors are members of the local Catholic community, McManaman said.
“It’s just going to be a really great fun time for us to all get together and enjoy food, fun and festivities,” she said.
The festival will also host a raffle with basket themes featuring everything from baking and Halloween to tools, McManaman said. The raffle is a slight departure from the festival’s traditional silent auction, she said, but it was a change she has planned to make since she took over coordinating the event last year.
The Fall Festival started about 20 years ago as an early celebration of the Tooele Catholic parish’s patron saint, Saint Marguerite, who Catholics typically honor with a feast on Oct. 16.
Admission to the festival is free to the public — the event typically draws about 2,000 patrons over two days, McManaman said — but the proceeds from the raffle, as well as from booth and vendor sales, go to support the church and the St. Marguerite Catholic School.
McManaman said proceeds not only go toward paying utilities and such, but this past year also helped the parish install various improvements to make the church more energy efficient — including new lights, a new floor, and several fans.
The festival will run from 5–11 p.m. on Friday and from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday. It will take place at the St. Marguerite Catholic Church at 15 S. 7th Street in Tooele.