WAPAKONETA — The Auglaize County Fairgrounds will host a new event this weekend just in time for the fall season.
The Howlin’ at the Moon Festival will bring a mix of musical acts, activities and food to the Wapakoneta area on Friday, October 14 and Saturday, October 15.
Lori Lambert, an organizer for the event, said that a great deal of work is going into putting on the event.
“We just saw signs are going up through town today,” she said. “We’re waiting on them. Luckily we’ve got a lot of volunteers pitching in and working the gate, stuff like that, but there’s just a lot of work that goes into it. This has been a year and a half in the making. So at this point in time, I’m pretty much burnt out. I just wanted to get here and start getting on locals and the kids and the families and so they can enjoy it because we’ve worked really hard on it. So there’s a lot to do, though, a lot to do in a short amount of time.”
But she says she thinks it will be well worth the effort.
“I’ve had calls this morning already from Portsmouth, Ohio,” she said. “They’ll be coming in from Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia following the circuit of music. It’s a good family event and it’s very reasonable with kids being free and that is due to Evans Chevrolet sponsoring us and JT LED lighting sponsor, and of course Moon City.”
Among the acts taking the stage will be Eagles tribute Victims of Love, The Moron Brothers, Billy Joel tribute Speed Limit, and Brandon Miller. Genres ranging from country to rock to pop will be represented. And that will just be the music.
Along with kids activities, there will be trunk-or-treat, a craft show and giveaways. Among the kids events will be a waffle decorating contest, a tractor pull and a spooky barn.
There will also be a cornhole tournament, a campsite decorating contest, ghost stories, a food drive, a car show and food trucks on site.
“You can watch music all day, bring your lawn chair, sit inside and go walk around or go shopping and eat good food,” said Lambert. “Everyone can come out and enjoy themselves and just bring the kids out and have a good time.”
And if the event goes off without a hitch, Lambert said it would mean a huge deal.
“It’d be huge,” she said. “We’ve already cleared next year because we’ve had such a great response. So I’m just hoping that all the locals and everybody comes out and enjoys it. There will be really good music that they can sit there you know all day and you cannot go get that much entertainment for that money. I would love to see thousands of people. That would be awesome. So with everybody’s help getting the word out, that’s the key, but it’s time to get out. And we’ve done this for the community and to bring people to Wapakoneta. And in downtime, they can go downtown. They can go to the Museum. There’s a lot of stuff to do here in this town. And they’ll probably all do that. I’m sure.”
All events at the Howlin’ at the Moon Festival are indoors and will go rain or shine.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at [email protected]
