Warm day attracts crowd
BUTLER TWP — Thousand of people came to Alameda Park Sunday to enjoy the 20th annual SeptemberFest on an unseasonably warm day.
The event included vendors, live entertainment, activities for children and a car cruise.
The festival attracted an estimated 4,000 people to the park, said Ashley Helmstaedter, program aquatic manager for Butler County Parks and Recreation.
The sunny day, with temperatures in the upper 80s, caused a good turnout, though it caused the county parks and recreation department to postpone its annual fishing derby.
The water was too warm to be stocked with fish, Helmstaedter said.
“The weather is good for the event, but it's not good for the fish,” she said.
The derby will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 7 at the pool, which will be stocked with trout. Prizes of gift cards or Alameda Water Park memberships will be given to participants who catch fish with tags attached to their gills.
Charles Ellenberger of Oakland Township said he likes Alameda Park and the festival, though something was missing.
“If the swimming pool was open today, it would have been a record crowd,” he said.
Many of the activities at the event were geared toward children and families.
New this year was the Grand Railroad, a 57-foot-long train that can carry up to 17 children. It ran a short loop passing by many of the vehicles in the car cruise.
This summer was the first season that the Grand Railroad was taken on tour to various festivals, said Joe Marshall of Dayton, Pa., who initially built the train to take his grandchildren in local parades.
The train engine was built out of an old Roper tractor and doesn't need a track to run, Marshall said.
“I wanted to build one (miniature train) that looked more like a real train,” he said.
One train passenger was Bricen Sell, 8, of Butler, who rode it twice.
Bricen said he enjoyed walking around the festival and took video footage, which he planned to post to YouTube.
“I rate it five stars,” he said.
With Halloween just around the corner, a couple of people in the car cruise brought themed vehicles.
Jerry Beck of Kittanning brought his 1989 hearse, complete with a decorated casket and numerous skeletons. Beck said he plans to have the outside of the car airbrushed with a grim reaper and other Halloween images.
Though it isn't a “classic car,” the hearse tends to get a good reaction from the crowds at car cruises.
“The kids love it. I do it for the kids,” he said.
The petting zoo and bubble soccer were also popular attractions this year, Helmstaedter said.
Bubble soccer is a take on the sport in which players wear large inflatable “bubbles” that allow them to bump into and knock over their opponents.
