For the second year, Friends of the Pickford Community Library is hosting a community-wide fall festival with proceeds benefitting the development of a public library in Pickford. People are expected to travel miles to participate in festival events that are synonymous with the season, including decorating pumpkins and sipping hot apple cider.

The Pickford Fall Fest is expected to attract more than 600 people from every corner of the Eastern Upper Peninsula to the Pickford Township Park on Manila Road Saturday, October 10, from noon to 4 p.m. Organizers expect to raise more than $2,000 for the library, roughly that same as last year's festival.

Festival organizer Melanie Greenfield expects the pumpkin patch and decorating area to be one of the bigger attractions at the festival this year. Families will enjoy a hayride through town to the pumpkin patch set up in the park, where children will be able to pick a pumpkin to decorate. Children will be given a ticket upon entry to the festival for one pumpkin. Last year, organizers gave away 400 pumpkins.

"There's not a pumpkin patch in the area," she said. "Families have to go downstate to pick pumpkins. This offers families an opportunity to go on a hayride and pick a pumpkin."

New to this year's festival will be the addition of the Pickford Farmers Market. Vendors will be on hand to sell their fresh fruits and vegetables as well as canned and baked goods at the ice pavilion. The Pickford Farmers Market was revitalized earlier this year after being defunct for several years.

Several merchandise vendors will also be set up in the ice pavilion and a professional photographer will be on hand to take family photographs.

An increased number of food vendors will be set up outside the pavilion, including U.P. in Smoke Catering with barbeque food items, Biz E Bee with concession food and drinks, and the Boys & Girls Club of Bay Mills and Brimley area with a whitefish fry and boil. Apple cider and doughnuts will also be available at the festival.

Farmers market, food, and merchandise vendors will all donate 10% of their sales during the festival toward the library development fund.

Family friendly activities will include a bouncy house, hay maze, and face painting. Both the face painting and bouncy house will have a small charge for participation. Families may take a stroll down the park's newly developed walking trail along the Munuscong River at the northern edge of the park.

The Pickford Pickers band will perform inside the pavilion from noon to 4 p.m., and the Pickford Township Volunteer Fire Department will distribute fire safety and prevention information.

Admission to the festival is $4 for adults and children, $2 for people older than 55, or $20 per family.