Warrenton’s Fall Festival is set for Sept. 25, returning after a 2020 hiatus to bring an afternoon of fun activities, craft makers, show cars and classic music to Main Street.

The Fall Festival opens at noon with kids’ activities, the annual car and motorcycle show, and vendors selling merchandise and food. The festival’s “kids corner” will include bounce houses and other inflatable games, along with a game trailer and face painting. An outdoor magic show will be provided at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Registration for car and motorcycle show participants is from 9 a.m. to noon. The show is free to enter, and is open to everything from vintage hot rods to modern muscle cars, and will be judged in up to 15 categories. Awards for show winners will be presented at 4 p.m.

Judging for the show will be conducted by Specialty Auto Body of Warrenton.

Festival organizers have lined up two special additions to the event this year: visits from the KSHE 95 radio broadcasting team and Miss Missouri USA 2021 pageant winner Joye Forrest. KSHE will broadcast live from Main Street from 3-5 p.m., while Forrest will greet festival visitors from 4 p.m. until the start of the main concert at 7:30.

Warrenton’s Fall Festival this year includes two concerts at opposite ends of Main Street. Perennial favorite Butch Wax & The Hollywoods return again, performing their collection of classic rock covers on the car show stage from 1-4 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m., after other activities at the festival have wound down, visitors will be treated to a concert from three classic rock bands on the main stage at the west end of the festival. The “Ultimate ’70s Tour” bands Atlanta Rhythm Section, Orleans and Pure Prairie League will entertain with a collection of their hit songs.

This tour of bands was scheduled to perform in Warrenton last year, before the city’s Fall Festival was canceled in the midst of the worsening COVID outbreak. Tour organizers agreed to hold Warrenton’s reservation until the 2021 festival.

Originally the lineup of Ultimate ’70s bands including the pioneering country rock band Poco, but the group bowed out of performing after the unexpected deaths of multiple longtime band members in 2020. They were replaced by southern rock headliners Atlanta Rhythm Section.

One more added attraction to delight festival visitors this year is a one-time fireworks show being brought in to make up for poor weather earlier this year. The city of Warrenton normally pays for a Fourth of July fireworks display during the Warren County Fair, but that show was canceled this year due to a storm. City Administrator Brandie Walters said fair organizers asked to hold the fireworks show during the Fall Festival instead.

The fireworks show will be staged out of a parking lot at the far western end of Main Street. The show will last for about half an hour.