Shoppers pause beside the fountain in South Park during the 30th annual Fall Arts and Crafts Festival, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009.

Patrick and Kris Manning will be part of a Sunday “weekend warriors” invasion of South Park.

The Lawrence couple will have one of the more than 150 booths at the 37th annual Fall Arts and Crafts Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at South Park, 1141 Massachusetts St. Patrick Manning said he and his wife don’t make the chocolate truffles and fudge the will be vending. They have an area operators agreement with Chocolate Moonshine Co., a Grove City, Penn., company that produces 25 different luxury truffle and fudge bars, he said.

Manning, a marketing supervisor for Lawrence’s McDonald’s restaurants, said he and his wife found Chocolate Moonshine while attending a franchise convention in January. They now market the chocolates at “pop-up events” like Sunday’s festival.

“That’s the fun of it,” Manning said. “I mean, we’re selling chocolates. There’s always happy people at our booth.”

Their first show was the Spring Arts and Craft Festival in South Park.

“We didn’t even know there was a fall festival,” Manning said. “It’s special because the spring show was our first show. Since then, we’ve been to Holton, several shows in Topeka and Ottawa. We had a great time at the Independence (Mo.) mall last weekend.

“We pack up and head out for the weekend. They call us ‘weekend warriors.'”

Duane Peterson, special events/facilities operation supervisor for Lawrence Parks and Recreation, said the Mannings would not be the only weekend warriors at the festival.

“We get a lot of vendors from out of state,” he said. “We get them coming through on the arts-and-crafts circuit from as far as Oregon, California, New Mexico, Texas and Illinois. With Lawrence being such an artsy community, they like to stop here.”

Local artists and crafters will add to the mix Sunday, Peterson said. More than 150 vendors had registered for the event as of Tuesday afternoon. That number would grow as there are always those who wait until Friday to register with Parks and Recreation, he said.

There will also be a number of food vendors at the festival and Free State Brewery will be there for the first time, Peterson said. The Lawrence Art Guild will be on hand with a variety of activities for children, he said.

The Lawrence City Band, Billy Ebeling and the Late for Dinner Band, the Beer Bellies, and the Lonnie Ray Blues Band will be among the musical acts playing from noon to 4 p.m. at the William Kelly Bandstand, Peterson said.

At 4 p.m., spirit dancer Dennis Rogers will present an educational show on Native American music and dance, Peterson said.

With the forecast calling for pleasant weather on Sunday, Peterson expects a festival crowd of 6,000 to 8,000 visitors. In the event of rain, it will be postponed until Sunday, Sept. 18.

The chance to sell her art and build her business convinced Dorothy Hoyt-Reed to get a booth at this year’s festival. She will be selling the stained glass hangings, boxes and candleholders she also offers at her Oz Art Glass store at 626 North Second St. in North Lawrence.

Although she’s a first-time vendor, Hoyt-Reed has attended the festival in the past, She said she was impressed with the size of the festival crowd and the quality and variety of booths it draws.

Hoyt-Reed started taking stained glass classes at the Lawrence Arts Center about five years ago.

“I’ve always been interested,” she said. “I like how the sun shines through the glass.”

She previously kept her pieces, gave them to friends or made them available for charity auctions. That changed when she was able to devote more time to her art and started her business, which also offers classes and sells supplies for stained glass artists. In addition to selling about 30 pieces of stained glass, she hopes the festival will help build awareness of the supplies and classes her shop offers, Hoyt-Reed said.