The 47th annual Arnold Days Festival is expected to attract flocks of people to the city.
The main festival is set to continue through today (Friday, Sept. 20) through Sunday (Sept. 22) with most activities at Arnold City Park on Bradley Beach Road off Jeffco Boulevard near the Meramec River.
“It is a geographical event that draws people from Jefferson County and St. Louis County as well as the city,” Parks and Recreation director Dickie Brown said. “We appreciate everyone who comes and enjoys our event. We try to provide a safe, enjoyable event that people want to come back to year after year.”
Leader Publications kicked off the festival Thursday, hosting the third Arnold Days Trivia Night,
Today through Sunday, the festival will include carnival rides and live music all three days, a revamped fireworks display on Friday and Saturday and the annual Arnold Days Parade.
There will be a variety of traditional attractions mixed in with new features.
“Arnold Days is a great time to come together as a community, and not just Arnold but also our surrounding communities,” said Teresa Kohut, a recreation supervisor for the pars department. “It is a time for us to come together as a community and celebrate where we are as a community.”
Park activities begin at 5 p.m. Friday, when carnival rides, food booths and craft booths start operating.
Friday night also will have a pair of new features – a dinosaur and princesses roaming the fair grounds.
The dinosaur is a person inside mechanical suit from RAWR St. Louis. The dinosaur, which makes lifelike movements, will be in the park from 6-8 p.m.. In addition, actors from Once Upon an Occasion will portray princesses at the park from 6:30-8 p.m.
Friday’s festivities will wrap up with a performance by Dirty Money, one of three bands scheduled to perform over the weekend, followed by a fireworks show from the lake.
Bitter Pill will take the stage Saturday, and Breakdown Shakedown will perform Sunday. Bands are scheduled to play from 7-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4-8 p.m. Sunday.
“I like the lineup,” Kohut said. “Two of them, we have never had before. Dirty Money was there last year on Sunday afternoon. The people who listened to them said, ‘Wow, that is the best band of the whole weekend.’”
The fireworks shows, put on by Gateway Fireworks, are scheduled to start about 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and each show will last for about 18 to 20 minutes, said Dave Crutchley, the parks department deputy director. This year is the first time fireworks will be launched from docks in the lake instead of from one of the park’s ball fields. It is expected to provide a more intimate setting for the display, and those wishing to see it will need to be inside the park.
“Because of where the fireworks were before, we had large fireworks and a farther setback,” Crutchley said. “We had to clear 400 feet all the way around, because the fireworks went up a couple of hundred feet. These (fireworks shot from docks on the lake) may only go up 75 to 100 feet. It will be more of an intimate show.”
If either fireworks show is rained out, one will be held at 8 p.m. Sunday.
Saturday’s activities will begin with the annual Arnold Days Mayor’s Breakfast at Ponderosa Steakhouse in Arnold. Doors will open at 7 a.m. Ron Lowry, director of security and guest services at First Baptist Church of Arnold, will be the guest speaker for the event, which is sponsored by the Arnold Rotary Club.
The Arnold Farmers Market will operate during the festival. It is open from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday at the front of the park through Oct. 19.
Also on Saturday, the annual Arnold Days Children’s Fishing Tournament will be held at the Arnold Park lake, sponsored by the Arnold Parks and Recreation Department and hosted by the Arnold-Imperial Optimist Club. Registration for the tournament is scheduled for 7:30 a.m., with fishing to begin at 8 a.m.
The St. Louis Longbeards, a chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, will be at the fishing tournament to provide free fishing poles and tackle to those who need it, and the group will offer free children’s activities from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Two yoga sessions will be held Saturday morning, with a pop-up session starting at 8 a.m. and a chair-accessible session at 9 a.m. at the Dogwood Pavilion.
The sixth annual Arnold Police Officers Association’s Car and Bike Show also will be held Saturday, with registration taking place between 8 a.m. and noon and judging scheduled to start at noon at the park’s central lot. Awards will be handed out at 4 p.m.
Starting at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, people will be able to sign up for three new events – a dog parade, an adult hot dog-eating contest and a children’s cupcake-eating contest starting at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the beer booths. It’s free to enter the contests, and people may enter up to five minutes before the start of each one.
All three contests will be held at the park’s Bandstand 1, with the dog parade set to begin at 2 p.m. Entrants will compete for pet gift cards.
The adult hot dog-eating contest starts a 3 p.m. Entrants must be 18 years old or older, and the person who eats the most hot dogs in three minutes will receive a $100 Visa gift card.
The children’s cupcake-eating contest starts at 4 p.m. The first 30 children, 14 years old or younger, to sign up will be blindfolded and will compete to eat a cupcake without using their hands. The child who eats the cupcake the fastest will receive 10 carnival ride tickets.
“We did a Moon Pie-eating contest for the Eclipse,” Kohut said. “They (eating contests) are fun.”
Super heroes will descend on the festival grounds from 5-8 p.m. Saturday, with members of the Gateway Superfriends coming dressed in capes and cowls.
On Sunday, the final day of festival, the annual Arnold Day Parade will start at 1 p.m. at the Fox C-6 Service Center, 849 Jeffco Blvd., and end at the park. The Fox and Seckman high school marching bands will perform, and a $100 prize will be awarded to the best parade entry.
A flag-raising ceremony, organized by the city’s Veterans Commission, will be held at 3 p.m. at the park’s flag pole.
Carnival rides will operate all three days with tickets costing $3 each. Discounted tickets are still available today (Sept. 19) at the Arnold Recreation Center, 1695 Missouri State Road, with eight tickets available for $12.
Wrist bands, which allows for unlimited rides from 5-10 p.m. Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, will be on sale for $20.
ATMs will be available near the food vendors and carnival rides throughout the festival.
Arnold budget $100,000 for the three-day event, but the city anticipates spending about $90,000, Brown said. He said the city expects to collect about $30,000 from proceeds from vendors and ride ticket sales.
SSM Health has donated $6,000 as Arnold Days sponsor, Brown said.
Free parking will be available in Arnold City Park from Friday through Sunday.
For more information about the upcoming Arnold Days Festival, call the Arnold parks department at 636-282-2380.