Harvest Fest Brings Families Together For Fall Fun [PHOTOS]

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- It was a fun, festive day for kids at an annual event on Saturday. The Stearns History Museum held its 5th Annual Historic Harvest Fest with activities both indoors and out. There were vintage carnival games, fall crafts, pumpkin painting, and a cake walk.

Program Director Caitlin Carlson says it takes a lot of work to get everything ready:

"The week leading up there's a lot of physical labor, we move old things like our old wagon over here onto our plaza, and then there is also a lot of more behind-the-scenes work where we have to get in touch with the bakers, get in touch with the brats, the meat market, that sort of thing. It's kind of become second nature to us at this point, but you have to have a little checklist in the couple of months leading up to it to make sure that you check all those boxes."

Carlson says over 600 people attend the festival each year, and it is the museum's event most geared towards young kids and families.

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She says they work with a lot of people to get everything ready, and everybody looks forward to the festival:

"It's a pretty fun day. It's different than our World War II event, that's a whole weekend and it's all day. This is like a short burst on a Saturday morning, so we go hard for three hours and then we all clean up and then relax (laughs), so it's nice."

Carlson says the festival is the museum's way to celebrate the start of fall, and they are grateful to everyone who donates prizes and their time to help make the event happen. The Historic Harvest Fest ran from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and was free to attend.