David Laskowski, of Baldwin City, manages to be in the spirit of the election season with American flags and Halloween as he shares his tandem bike with a skeleton at Saturday's Maple Leaf Parade in Baldwin City.

Baldwin City ? Logan Lashbrook was enjoying a moment of relaxation Saturday at Kappa Sigma’s Maple Leaf Festival turkey leg stand as the clock on the bank across the street showed 10 minutes before noon.

A junior, Lashbrook managed the Baker University fraternity’s stand a year ago and had experience with its popularity among those attending the festival. In a few minutes when the near hourlong festival parade wrapped up, the stand at the festival’s epicenter of Eighth and High streets would be a destination for many attendees.

Ron Johnson, of Grandview, Mo., hands 12-year-old Nellie LaFountain, of Baldwin City, a mirror to check on the hair crown he styled for her at his K.C. Twist booth Saturday at the Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin City.

“We’ll have people lined up across the street,” Lashbrook said. “We’re trying to be better prepared than last year. We have a couple of coolers filled with legs.”

Lashbrook, who is running the grill this year, knows the stored turkey legs wouldn’t keep ahead of the crowd and expected some of his younger fraternity brothers might know what was ahead of them.

“They’ll catch on,” he said. “There’s like, 30,000 people at the festival every year. We have 80 boxes. That’s 1,500 to 1,600 legs.”

Hannah Hutton and Tim Craig enjoy turkey legs from the Baker University Kappa Sigma food booth late Saturday morning at the annual Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin City. Hutton and Craig returned to their hometown from college for festival weekend.

A half block south on Eighth Street, Hannah Hutton and Tim Craig sat on the sidewalk with backs against a wall enjoying their turkey legs. Both had returned to their hometown from college for the festival, Hutton from Kansas State University and Craig from Pittsburg State University. Kappa Sigma turkey legs were on their festival checklists, and they had enough festival experience to know they could avoid a long line if they got to the booth early.

“I’ve been saving this craving for a month,” Hutton said. “He wants a funnel cake, and I want a caramel apple. I don’t know what else I’m going to get. I’ll have to look around.”

As downtown filled up after the parade, Joanna Bonee, of Lawrence, had already finished the shopping list of her husband, Jason Bonee, and was shopping the craft booths for anything of interest.

“I was told by my husband I had to get gooseberry jam,” she said. “He knows this is a good place to find it.”

The festival appeared on track to draw its usual 30,000 to 40,000 visitors, said Donna Curran, Maple Leaf Festival Committee vendor chair. People started arriving at vendor booths soon after they opened at 9 a.m., she said.

“The crowds look great,” she said. “I was in the parade and when we turned the corner at Sixth Street, I saw the crowd on High Street and went, ‘Wow.'”

The Maple Leaf Festival crowd fills Eighth Street in downtown Baldwin City shortly after the annual event's parade ended at about noon Saturday. Organizers say the event appears to be on track to draw its usual 30,000 to 40,000 visitors to the southern Douglas County community. The festival will continue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The weather was near perfect for the festival with temperatures in the low 70s and overcast skies, Curran said. The only concern was the wind.

“We had a booth take flight last night,” she said. “She was able to get another tent and was open this morning.”

At the intersection of Eighth and Indiana streets, Clemo Haddox wasn’t worried about the craft items in his family’s DC’s Juntiques booth taking flight. The superintendent of the South Coffeyville, Okla., school district said he and his family had returned to the festival for the 16th year with their wrought-iron yard art. As the First Methodist Church bell tower rung out the start of the noon hour, Haddox was already happy with his day.

“You see all that lined up behind the tent?” he asked. “That’s already been sold and waiting to be picked up. We’ve been busy since we opened this morning.”

The annual festival will continue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.