Good times and great memories are on the schedule at Lillian Recreational Park’s Fall Fest on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.
What’s Happening
The event features barbecue, live music, a beer tent, arts and crafts vendors, and games and activities.
A fun zone will include a bouncy house, face painting, balloon art, pumpkin painting, laser tag and a petting zoo, along with pumpkins for painting and smashing. Visitors can also find a pumpkin to take home.
The eight-hour run — 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. — is longer than most one-day community festivals, which gives families the option of arriving for lunch, for the afternoon activities, or for the evening music without committing to the full day.
The Food
“This is one of our favorite events of the year,” said Lucy Smith, Lillian Recreational Park board president. “Everyone has so much fun! People come for the food, the music, or just to play games and soak up all the fall ambience.”
She singled out one draw in particular: “You’ll find grandparents doing the egg toss with their grandkids, kids playing laser tag, and people lining up again and again for the incredible homemade brats and smoked butts by Garlock Processing.”
A local processor smoking pork butts on site is a different proposition from festival concession food, and Smith’s description of repeat lines suggests the barbecue functions as an anchor rather than an accompaniment.
The Music
Organizers have confirmed the lineup for the afternoon. Cowboy Johnson and Jon Cook will play from noon to 3 p.m., and Gary Story and Bad Habit will take the stage from 4 to 7 p.m.
“And, speaking of music, we are excited to have Cowboy Johnson and Jon Cook playing from 12-3 and Gary Story and Bad Habit playing from 4-7,” Smith said. “Their music is going to be off the charts!”
The two-act structure splits the day neatly: live music covers the lunch and early-afternoon block, breaks for the heat of mid-afternoon, and returns for the evening stretch when the temperature drops and the crowd shifts toward adults.
Cost and Parking
Some activities will be free, while others carry a modest cost.
There is a requested donation of $5 for parking, with proceeds going toward repaving the parking lot.
That detail says something about how a community park of this kind operates. Lillian Recreational Park is run by a volunteer board, and capital maintenance — repaving, roofing, equipment replacement — has to be funded through exactly this sort of incremental fundraising rather than a municipal capital budget.
Something for Multiple Generations
Smith’s description of grandparents doing the egg toss with grandchildren captures the event’s intended audience. The activity mix deliberately spans age ranges: laser tag and bouncy houses for children, a beer tent and live music for adults, and traditional field games that work across generations.
Pumpkin smashing, meanwhile, is the sort of activity that appears on few festival schedules and reliably draws a crowd when it does.
Planning Your Visit
Mid-September on the Eastern Shore still runs warm, so shade and water are worth planning for during the midday hours. The later part of the schedule, as the afternoon cools, is generally the more comfortable window for extended time outdoors.
The park is located in Lillian, in southeastern Baldwin County near the Florida line.
