The weather wasn’t interested in cooperating last weekend, as organizers held the 2023 Cheshire Fall Festival & Marketplace, courtesy of the Cheshire Chamber of Commerce. However, while storms on Friday made for an abbreviated evening (and canceled concert), and soggy fields as well as the threat of even more rain caused some changes on Saturday – the ReMax hot air balloon as well as the Kiwanis Club inflatables had to be scrapped – there was still plenty of fun, food, and enteratinment to be had by those in attendance.
“Thank you to everyone for being patient with us in regards to this weekends weather,” said Cheshire Chamber President Yetta Augur, in a post on Facebook Sunday, Sept. 10. “It wasn’t ideal but we are happy so many came out and shared this event with us. Huge shout and thank you go out to the Town of Cheshire, Connecticut and our parks maintainers! A special thank you to all the volunteers that made the fall festival happen. Your outstanding contribution to the community did not go unrecognized.”
Augur also took the time to thank her “Chamber Team” for the hard work logged in getting the Festival up and running, as well as adapting to the weather-related issues. “(Fourteen) hour days in whatever mother nature threw at us and you still were smiling and laughing,” she wrote.
Showers and thunderstorms had been forecast throughout the weekend, however it was predicted that such storms would likely pass through the region rather quickly. However, the storms, especially those on Friday evening, were severe, which prompted the decision by Festival organizers to cancel the scheduled concert. Those who attended Friday evening did have an opportunity to partake in the offerings from several food trucks, however.
On Friday evening, the Chamber announced via their Facebook page that the field conditions were being assessed and that a decision would be made early Saturday morning about the Festival. “The field is wet and we determined that the Festival is on,” read the announcement on Sept. 9.
Photos by Tracey Harrington/Cheshire Herald