When the Mainstreet Market Fall Festival started in 2020, the idea of gathering downtown had more to do with the end of the mask mandate than the creation of an annual event.
“It was more of ‘they lifted the mask mandate, let do something,’” said Estrella Carter, sponsor and one of the founding planners of the event.
The first year, Carter partnered with Hastings Prescott Area Arts Council (HPAAC) to plan an event in the lobby of the Art Space building. Over the years, the event has grown to span Second Street and this year included craft fairs, live music, and sales throughout businesses downtown.
At Arts Space, local artists donated their time for caricatures and face painting, as games of red light green light played out over the speakers. Local celebrities braved the dunk tank including city councilors Lisa Leifeld and Jen Fox, as well as Father Christmas himself. Blue Smoke BBQ served ribs in the Art Space parking lot alongside booths from local artisans and businesses and a pickleball court. A raffle with prizes donated from businesses across the community including Lock and Dam Eatery, the 2nd Street Depot, the American Legion, and many, many more echoed through the Art Space building throughout the day.
Over the years the event has gotten support from HPAAC, Art Space, and this year, from Tippy’s Corner Store, the new convenience store on the corner of Ramsey and Third Street East. The store is owned by downtown businessowner David “Tippy” Ramirez who also runs Tippy’s Collectables. The independently owned grocer sells staples like bread, laundry detergent and milk right off Second Street.
According to Carter, the biggest change this year was simply that she had “more volunteers.”
Less than a block away, the 30th annual Relay for Life, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, set up at the Levee Park Pavilion. The Relay for Life is a fundraiser where teams walk and run to raise funds for cancer research. This year’s Hastings Relay for Life was in memory of the event’s original founder, Laura Leak who recently passed away.
Community members decorated paper bags with the names of loved ones with cancer for the luminaria, where candles were placed within them and lit after dark.
“The idea is to walk and remember them,” said Linda Kampa, the event lead who has organized the event for the last 29 years.
Even before the event started, it had raised more than $30,000 across the 11 teams that would be participating in the relay. Both Kampa and Co-Chair JoAnne Schommer were grateful for the nice weather as the 2023 event took place despite rain.
“We got drenched but we danced in the rain,” said Schommer.
For more information about Relay for Life, visit the American Cancer Society’s website at https://www.cancer.org/