BY AMANDA PEVEY
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
PHOTOS BY AMANDA PEVEY/EAN
On Saturday, an estimated 4,000 people came out to the 13th annual Boo Festival sponsored by the City of Millbrook. The Boo Festival event was held at the Village Green Park located in Millbrook, Alabama. This year included a Farmers Market, Costume Contests, Pumpkin Patch, Hayride, Bike-R-Treat, Pumpkin Toss Contest, Hay Mountain, Food Trucks, a DJ, lots of candy and plenty games for the children to play. This year’s event was, by far, the highest attendance in history.
Many families that attended the event came out to enjoy the activities for the very first time.
“First, the kettle corn popcorn was amazing. It was also great to see how effective the event was at bringing the community together,” said members of the Baksh family. “Our kids loved shucking the corn (they had never done it before and the young ladies at the station were super helpful in teaching them how to do it). I never thought shucking corn could be so fun for our kids but they were so proud when they got it! The location was awesome, too with a really great park right there. We had a blast checking out the vendors, dressing up in our costumes, enjoying the music and just letting the kids run loose. It was exactly what a community festival would be.”
The Baksh’s are a military family that moved from Langley AFB located in Hampton, Virginia to Maxwell AFB a few months ago. The Baksh’s have three children, Brielle (5), Azai (3), and Kaia (9 months old).
“It was great that it was a family atmosphere and that it was toddler appropriate also. It was nice to see so many local businesses participating,” said members of the Johnson Family. The Johnson’s have one son, Nolan (3).
“This festival was so fun for our children! Our kids loved all the games. My son is a huge Spider-Man fan, and he loved getting his picture taken with him. They also loved seeing all the costumes and it was our first time coming to this event,” said members of the Wilhite Family. The Wilhite’s have two children, Mary Ella (6), and Caden (4).
“Our favorite thing was the hayride, family atmosphere, the games, the dancing, the costume contests. We just moved here a year ago, and this is their first time coming to Boo Fest. We are so excited about the Whoville Christmas event coming to Millbrook next month,” said members of the Williams family.
Danae Morgan is the Millbrook Cultural Arts-Special Events Director spoke to EAN about the Boo Festival event.
“Today’s Boo Festival was by far our most successful event in recent memory. Mayor Kelley said that he can’t recall a time that our Village Green Park was filled up to the capacity it was today. It makes us all extremely proud to bring quality, entertaining events to our community.”
Morgan continued, “It was definitely a team effort and we have the very best team with our Mayor, City Council, City staff, Chamber of Commerce, local businesses, community partners, and citizens. We cannot not thank everyone enough for their participation.
“I’m always shocked when they accept my wacky ideas and we run with them. Everything turned out better than we even dreamed. Our staff cannot wait to get into a follow-up meeting and we’ve already been exchanging ideas over group text today. We now have the blueprint we need to better understand what Millbrook appreciates in order to elevate our community events. The Boo Festival event was just the beginning of bigger and better things to come, so Millbrook stay tuned,” said Morgan.
Police Chief P.K. Johnson spoke highly of everyone who took part in the Boo Festival event and the exceptional work that the city to put in to make this happen for our community.
“A huge shoutout to Scott Davis, Millbrook Parks and Recreations staff, Cultural Arts-Special Event Director Danae Morgan and our city staff that were responsible for organizing and putting on today’s Boo Festival, at Village Green Park. By my estimation, the crowd well exceeded 4000, from 10 a.m. through 2 p.m.. Today’s crowd was one of the largest I’ve seen at Village Green in my 26 years with the City. Everyone at this event had a great time and there were no problems to speak of, which is a testament to our citizens. Events like this add to the quality of life for our citizens. I love seeing kids with smiles on their faces and I saw plenty of those today. To all involved in putting on today’s event, Job Well Done! Today was a great day for our City and it’s little ones,” said Johnson.
Michael Gay, Millbrook City Council President, spoke to the EAN about how appreciative he of Millbrook and community residents.
“It’s amazing to see this many people in one place, everyone smiling and having a good time. Welcome to Millbrook! I am proud of our city employees, local businesses, vendors and local civic organizations,” Gay said.
There were over 25 vendors in attendance passing out candy. Organizers and volunteers were playing games with the children, and passing out prizes. DJ music was provided by Gillespie’s Entertainment. There was plenty of dancing and singing happening on the dance floor. There were also three great food trucks in attendance. Front Porch Grill, Metro Eatery’s Fork in the Road, and Kingdom Dough had a steady business throughout the day. Many people were able to support our local businesses by enjoying some delicious food.
At the Gazebo in the park, a scary but fun photo opportunity with three creepy guests included Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Ghostface. Special thanks to Landon Stiles, Dylan Whitehead, Matthew Hitson, and Briar Gaines for volunteering their spooky services for the event.
Many vendors enjoyed the event and cannot wait to come back next year. The A-Team Local Realty group vendor spoke to EAN about the festival since it was their first time attending.
“Today is a great turnout for the community. It was by far way better then we ever expected. We thought we had enough candy to last the whole time of the event, but we ran out very quickly and had to go get more. It was an amazing day,” The A-Team Local Realty group members said.
This organization is a group of Alabama Realtors from LocAL Realty, here to give you the real deal on buying and selling homes in the River Region. They are a group of three hit-the-floor-running working moms. They are Jamie Mangham, Agent, Alyson Robertson, Associate Broker, and Megan Evans, Agent.
SEE THE PHOTO GALLERY BELOW!!!!
