Warrenton’s Fall Festival drew about 5,500 people to the city’s downtown this year, despite 90-degree weather.

The Fall Festival is Warrenton’s biggest annual event, featuring vendors lining Main Street, family activities, a car show, live music and a headlining evening concert. 

Downtown business owners said 90-degree temperatures might have kept some people away during the afternoon, but by late evening the street in front of the Warren County Courthouse was packed with people waiting for a concert performance from Little River Band.

“I thought it went very well. It was so hot, I was actually surprised to see as many people out in the heat,” said Brenda Sue Fowler, owner of Brenda Sue’s vintage clothing and costume shop. 

Brenda Sue’s was open with staff manning tables on Main Street throughout the festival, which Fowler said is an opportunity to market what the shop has to offer. Foot traffic downtown was steady throughout the day, but seemed to slow down in the afternoon, she said. Fowler speculated that could have been because of the heat, or because events and activities were more spread out this year. 

Leading up to the festival, city workers installed new electrical outlets at several locations on Main Street so vendors could be spread further apart. That addition was based on feedback from vendors last year.

Laura Werner, co-owner of Downtown Pub and Grill, agreed that the heat might have hurt attendance for the festival. However, the restaurant drew a crowd with live outdoor music, which Werner said was a first since she and her husband, Mike, took over the restaurant last year.

“I loved (the festival). Everybody loved it,” Werner said. She added that a number of people commented that the featured concert by Little River Band wasn’t loud enough to hear well from outside the pub and grill, about a block away from the stage.

The Fall Festival is organized by the city of Warrenton and sponsored through a special city tourism fund. Brandie Walters, Warrenton’s assistant director of operations, said festival attendance this year was about the same as last year, with an estimated 5,500 people visiting downtown.

“The nighttime crowd is always larger than in the daytime due to the main stage entertainment,” Walters said in an email. “Prior to the main concert, the Kids Corner is always popular, as well as the car show.”

She added that the additional electricity installed downtown this year worked well for vendors and saved the city from having to rent generators to power concert equipment, as it had in previous years.

Classic cars were on display for a car show in downtown Warrenton on Saturday, Sept. 23. The show was part of Warrenton's Fall Festival.

Crowds travel between vendor booths lining both sides of Main Street in downtown Warrenton during the city's annual Fall Festival Saturday, Sept. 23. Record photo/Derrick Forsythe.