With a new theme each year like "All Seasons-One Reason" and "Wild About Christ," the St. Lawrence Fall Festival at St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Garden City, Texas, is a religious-themed celebration and church fundraiser. That doesn't mean that the festival doesn't have fun, however. The Fall Festival also sets up food stands selling its homemade sausages, along with game and activity booths for families and raffles allowing attendees to take home major prizes.
The Basics
- A fundraiser for St. Lawrence's new parish hall and for parishioner programs and activities, the festival has drawn anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 attendees in recent years. The festival draws visitors from around Texas and the United States and even boasts visitors from overseas. Held each year on the first Sunday in October, one of the festival's biggest moneymakers are its silent and live auctions. Items given away include such goodies as handmade quilts, trips and cash.
Food
- One of the festival's highlights is its sausage, which is seasoned and smoked by St. Lawrence parishioners. In recent years, festival-goers have stood in long lines and purchased all of the uncooked 12,000 pounds of sausage made by the church. The festival also serves lunch, which includes barbecue brisket and homemade desserts, for purchase. Community cookbooks are for sale, as well as cooked sausage sandwiches and other refreshments after 2 p.m.
Activities
- The festival begins with a mass at the church at 9 a.m. Afterward, the festival sets up a number of game booths, which include Plinko, a football throw and a Spin-a-Wheel. For kids, the festival provides a duck pond, petting zoo and maze. If you're interested in shopping to support the church, visit the festival's Kountry Kitchen for handicrafts and baked goods or the Christian Corner for religious-themed merchandise.
Details
- Held in the parish hall and on parish grounds, the festival lasts, typically, from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission to the festival is free, but you'll likely want to bring some cash for purchasing lunch or dinner, sausages, playing the games or entering the raffle. Be warned, lines to purchase sausage can be long, and the huge amount of sausage made tends to sell out.
