Entries in the annual Scarecrows in the Park contest will be on display during the Fall Fest at Grove City Memorial Park. The festival runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

GROVE CITY — The Grove City Fall Fest will offer visitors the tastes, smells and colors of fall this Saturday.

The annual festival will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Grove City Memorial Park.

It is organized by a volunteer committee, but also partners with the Grove City Chamber of Commerce and the Grove City United Way.

It will feature a farmer’s market, craft vendors, food and activities for all ages.

“There are lots of things to chose from there. It’s a day to be out in the park,” organizer Mary Kay Mattocks said.

One attraction will be free pumpkin decorating. Children will receive a small pumpkin to take home, which they can decorate with markers and paint.

The annual Scarecrows in the Park contest began this past weekend before Fall Fest. The scarecrows are set up on the grass near the park’s main entrance from West Main Street and were to be judged Tuesday.

The judges award first, second and third place to the scarecrows, which are divided into three divisions: business, organization and individual.

The Grove City United Way uses the event as its annual Community Day to support its Day of Caring fund.

It will hold a pie-baking contest with entries in four categories: nut, cream, fruit and other. There will also be a chili cook-off, a soup contest and a youth cupcake baking contest for ages 8 through 18.

Samples of the chili, soup, pie and cupcakes will be sold after they are judged.

For entry forms for the cooking and baking contests, visit grovecityunitedway.org or call 724-458-5427.

At 2 p.m., the Grove City Chamber of Commerce will hold its sixth annual Great Balls of Fall raffle.

Up to 3,000 golf balls will be released through an obstacle course with numbers corresponding to raffle tickets. The top five finishers will receive cash prizes.

Raffle tickets will be available from any chamber board member or at the office, 119 S. Broad St., Grove City.

Fall Fest started in 1998, when the borough held a series of celebratory events in honor of its bicentennial.

Those events were well received and three of them have continued. The Fall Fest and a July 4th celebration are held every year, and a Civil War re-enactment is held every other year, Mattocks said.

“The three events we kept. They have survived. This is a nice way to give back to the community,” she said.