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Delavan Fall Festival good times and great memories
More festivals to come

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[September 04, 2014]  Below Chicago, most of Illinois consists of small rural communities. Generations of families living in these rural areas come together to celebrate their uniqueness and their roots with fall festivals and homecomings.

One such community, Delavan, lies between Peoria, Bloomington and Springfield. Over the Labor Day weekend Delavan puts on a wonderful fall festival that celebrates the close of summer and welcomes fall. More importantly, the four day event that is packed with events for every age is also a gigantic homecoming bringing together local friends and neighbors, as well as those wandering former Delavanites and family members from far-off places.

The hub of the activities is near the downtown area in beautiful Lake Park. The festival features a wide variety of activities from bingo to music and dances, a carnival, outdoor movie nights, kids’ games, a parade, plenty of food-vendor offerings and many different events, varying on each of the days.

Saturday featured a D O nut race, which involved eating delicious fried donuts, an all community church service kicked off Sunday and the annual 10-K Road Race and Fun Run on Monday was followed by a parade.

Local athletic, civic organizations and church groups sponsored a variety of fun foods and entertainment booths along side crafts and product vendors that offered a variety of choice goods.

The Delavan Fall Festival's diverse offerings and a few of its larger competitions drew considerable interest from surrounding areas as well. In particular, the Truck and Tractor Pull competition on Sunday drew hundreds to the backside of the park. Open sided tents, portable chairs and coolers of refreshments accompanied this crowd who were there to leisurely watch competitions from the hillside. Those who were less interested in the results were sent to fetch delicious food from the other end of the park.

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Special chicken or walleye dinners were featured, along with the Community Club's popular grilled seasoned pork chop and bratwurst sandwiches available each day. Strawberry short cake was a special treat along with an old-fashioned ice cream social.

It sounds good, doesn’t it? If you missed this wonderful Labor Day celebration in Delavan, there is always next year.

But even sooner than that, you have another opportunity next weekend when Mount Pulaski and Atlanta host their fall festivals.

Later in September, the 44th Annual Abraham Lincoln National Railsplitting Contest returns to the Logan County Fairgrounds in Lincoln over the Sept. 19 and 20th weekend. The festival includes two days of nationally sanctioned rail splitting contests, as well as pioneer period activities, food and craft vendors; a great fall family event.

We hope you will be able to get out and enjoy some of those good times, some of the best the Heartland has to offer.

Watch LDN for further details and reminders, and for all the coverage that follows each of these wonderful events as they unfold and become another layer of our rich heritage.

[LDN]

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