While the weather was very summerlike even though it's already officially fall, several families still turned out to enjoy the Harvest Fest hosted in Escalon’s Main Street Park on Sunday, Oct. 4.

There were plenty of pumpkins to go around, as youngsters were encouraged to decorate them with a variety of stickers, googly eyes, markers, bows, pipe cleaners, fake spiders and more, creating one of a kind decorative gourds. Tours of the historic Main Street caboose were offered by the Escalon Historical Society, which also had a booth set up with information about upcoming museum events and some merchandise for sale. And there were several games set up for kids along with a coloring station.

This year’s event, put on by the Escalon Lions Club, also featured multiple vendors throughout the park, offering up goods including handmade soaps, crystals, candles, handbags, colorful gooey slime and more. There was also cotton candy, donuts, lemonade, specialty coffees, and some food trucks. Tables were set up so diners could take a break from the activities and enjoy lunch or settle in for a cool treat to try and beat the heat.

Another feature enjoyed by the young attendees was the chance to go trick-or-treating all around the park. The non-food vendors had a stash of candy at their booths and many of the children came in costume.

Lions Club member Robert Swift was once again pressed into service to help cut the tops off or carve the pumpkins if requested before kids took them for decorating and fellow Lion Megan McNinch – who organized the vendors for the Harvest Fest – was making sure everyone had what they needed, keeping up a hectic pace throughout the day.

The line at Sonya Huff’s face painting booth was steady, including the dad and daughter duo of Leighton and Aubrey Finch, who each took a turn in the chair. Young Aubrey, 5, chose to have some colorful flowers curve around her eye while dad Leighton left his design to the artist, Huff giving him a partial skeleton face and adding a spider web and spider to his forehead.

Members of the Miss Escalon court helped out as well, running the games, with Little Miss and Little Mr. Escalon also attending the event as the city’s young ambassadors.