The Atascadero Fall Festival is back for a third year.
“Events like this, they're free to attend," said Terrie Banish, City of Atascadero Director of Community Service and Promotions. "You can enjoy all the music and everything. The carnival rides, of course, cost money, but it's really a nice way to get downtown, see the different shops, see what we've been doing.”
Events like Atascadero's Fall Festival bring people in from out of the area, but it's also geared toward locals.
Banish says about 30 percent of the attendees are tourists, while the other 70 percent are locals.
The idea for the festival started five years ago and after COVID-19 mandates were lifted, everything started falling into place with the help of En Fuego Events.
“There's two sponsorship pieces to this. There's the tourism board that gives the seed money, if you will, for it. And then there's the city that provides the venue space. So it's not costing the city per se, but we do have staff time that definitely is used to make this all happen. If there's any staff time over and above what we normally have, En Fuego Events pays for that,” Banish explained.
“We have more carnival rides than we ever had. We have over 40 bands, which is more bands than we've ever had, on two stages. We have the most vendors and food trucks on-site than we've ever had," Andres Nuno, Event Organizer with En Fuego Events, said of this year's festival.
The festival began on Friday and will continue through Sunday, and is open to all ages. The goal is to get families out of the house just before the holidays to spend time in the community and give downtown businesses a boost.
"We look forward to this every year," Nuno said. "It's a nice tradition for the people of Atascadero and then also people coming from out of town can come visit Atascadero and see something really fun in one spot and then also go downtown and shop in and grab some drinks or food down there too.”
En Fuego Events puts together 20 events a year, including the Central Coast Craft Beer Festival, and makes donations to local organizations.
“We're working with the friends of the Charles Paddock Zoo," Nuno commented. "So there will be funds raised from this event will go towards that. What they do is whatever that the zoo needs help with, that's the money that will go directly to the zoo.”
Whether they break even, make or lose money on the festival, En Fuego Events will donate $2,500 to the Charles Paddock Zoo. The zoo was also the recipient of the funds for the previous two festivals.
