A one-day fall festival that started as a nod to Eudora’s many German settlers will return Saturday for its 20th year.

Barbara Tuttle, Eudorafest committee chairwoman, said the actual German associations of Eudorafest have waned in recent years as it has become more of a traditional fall festival. This year, it will offer a full day of entertainment, food and craft booths in downtown Eudora.

Activities will start at 9 a.m. at Eighth and Main streets with a vendor area and a truck, car and motorcycle show. Kids’ games are slated throughout the day at CPA Park.

Tuttle said a parade was scheduled for 10 a.m. with the lineup to start at 9:30 a.m. at Kerr Field. The five-block parade will travel from Kerr Field along Elm Street to 10th Street west to Main Street and then north to Seventh Street, she said.

At least 50 crafts booths will be on hand, Tuttle said, as will plenty of food from vendors, including festival favorites such as walking tacos, brats, hamburgers, funnel cakes, caramel apples and pies.

Returning is the local talent show, which has become a Eudorafest tradition over the years. Entertainment will include Gary and Dani Tompkins of Iowa, plus National Traditional Country Music Association Hall of Fame member David Green. Crowds will likely also gather to watch pedal and garden tractor pulls and turtle races.

Eudorafest schedule

9 a.m.

Craft show, car show, kids games in CPA Park; Kids path to Pizza (starts at the Eudora Public Safety Building at 10th and Main streets).

9:30 a.m.

Parade lineup in Kerr Field, 1000 block of Elm Street.

10 a.m.

Opening ceremonies at Eight and Main: National Anthem by Gary and Dani Tompkins and Eudora Boy Scouts’ presentation of the flag.

Parade

10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

David Green performance

11 a.m.

Alan Cunningham at CPA Park with kids’ activities and cake walk; garden tractor weigh-in at 10th and Fir streets

Noon

Gary and Dani Tompkins performance; pedal pull registration at Eighth and Main streets; Full of Ballooney balloon twisting in CPA Park

12:30 p.m.

Turtle race at CPA Park

1 p.m.

Pedal pull at Eighth and Main streets; talent show registration by info booth

2 p.m.

Talent show at Eighth and Main streets

3 p.m.

Awards for car show, citizenship, talent show and turtle race.

4 p.m.

Vendor booths close.

Eudorafest revelers with a taste for more partying can make a 17-mile trip Saturday to Baldwin City for the Lumberyard Arts Center’s annual Blues and Barbecue. The fundraiser, which supports the arts center’s programming, will start at 4:30 p.m. at the Joe Spurgeon Park immediately east of the Lumberyard, 718 High St.

For a free-will offering, attendees can enjoy pulled-pork sandwiches with sides, desserts and beer, plus music from a lineup that includes Sky Smead, Truckstop Honeymoon and the Wakarusa River Band.

A scoreboard has been erected at a Eudora ball field in memory of 5-year-old Cainan Shutt, who was killed five years ago in a wreck on Kansas Highway 10.

Waylon Ziesenis, a member of the Cainan Shutt Memorial Fund, said money for the scoreboard was raised earlier this month at a softball and kickball tournament with a silent auction.

The 16-foot by 5-foot scoreboard was placed on the Eudora Recreation Commission’s main ball field just north of K-10 off Church Street, Ziesenis said. Eudora youth league teams play on the field in the summer, and Eudora High School junior varsity baseball teams in the spring, Ziesenis said. The Eudora Recreation Commission fall softball league will be the first to benefit from the new scoreboard, he said.

The operable scoreboard at that field was moved to another field. The donation with the recreation committee’s volunteer labor to install the scoreboard totaled about $6,000, Ziesenis said.
The Cainan Shutt Memorial Fund also provides two to four scholarships each year to Eudora High School students, Ziesenis said.

The April 2011 collision that claimed Cainan’s life spurred the Kansas Department of Transportation to move forward with a plan to install cable-median barriers on K-10.