For 38 years, the Quanah Fall Festival has served as a homecoming of sorts for locals. That’s how Bertha Woods, executive secretary of the Quanah Chamber of Commerce, sees it as locals, visitors and returning former locals come together every year for a day full of excitement for all ages. While last year’s Fall Festival technically didn’t take place, Woods still counts it in the annual tradition since the entire event was planned out. Now a year later, she is excited for things to pick back up again.
This year’s Fall Festival is on Saturday, September 11 and it is even more special this year since Quanah Parker Day and the Quanah High School All School Reunion will be taking place at the same time. Visitation for the all school reunion is on Friday night to pay dues; the money collected from dues goes to scholarships for Quanah seniors. There will be a meeting on Saturday morning and then former Quanah High School students can go downtown and enjoy the festivities. Being able to catch up with old classmates takes up a large portion of the weekend, but visits to businesses on and off square and reliving old memories is a highlight for many former Quanah students and residents as well.
“They like to come home and see the changes that have been made in the town and what’s going on, so that’s a good thing,” Woods said.
Since Quanah Parker Day is another big highlight of the weekend, several descendants of Quanah Parker are coming into town to serve food and display artifacts.
Activities for the fall festival will be set up around the courthouse square, with the tractor show on Mercer Street, truck show on 2nd Street and car show in the parking lot of First Capital Bank. Woods said that in 2019, the car show featured over 90 cars and the trucks in the truck show were painted with elaborate designs and artwork that were beautiful to look at. She also said that in the past, the truck drivers that enter the show are nice and usually let kids come inside their trucks and look around and blow the horn. Many of the entries for the shows come from out of town participants, bringing in more visitors to show the town off to. Prizes will be awarded to winners in each of the shows.
The Texas Department of Transportation will also be stationed on the square and they will have games set up for kids. The Quanah High School band will play at the courthouse at 1:00 p.m. while the high school cheerleaders perform. The Hardeman County Historical Museum will also be hosting book signings for several local and visiting authors, giving tours and a local couple is celebrating their anniversary that weekend and are renewing their vows at the museum during the festivities.
Cow patty bingo will also be located by the local branding board and a $300 cash prize is up for grabs. If the cow doesn’t drop a patty in the allotted one hour time frame, they will switch to a $150 drawing. The branding board will also be adding newly county registered brands to the board that day. Tickets are $5 for 1 square, $20 for 5 squares and can be purchased at the Quanah Chamber booth.
The Fall Festival wouldn’t be the same without the multitude of food choices and Woods excitedly highlighted all of them. For the 38th year in a row, the fire department will be doing hamburgers and fries, adding their own staple to the yearly tradition. Several churches are making food items, the little league will sell lemonade and United will provide cold drinks all day. The Epsilon Sigma Alpha (ESA) Sorority is also making homemade ice cream and different vendors will sell snow cones, breakfast burritos, nachos, cold fruit cups, pies, cakes and more. Woods is also excited that a vendor from Amarillo will be making a trip down for the Fall Festival to sell his kettle corn and a former Quanah native will be coming home to sell her icy island slushies.
“It’s a great feeling because everybody works together and everybody loves Fall Fest…” Woods said with pride. “It’s a good thing for small communities to work together like that.”
The 38th Annual Quanah Fall Festival is an all day event but the vehicle shows have scheduled time. Registration for the car show is from 9:00-11:00 a.m., with voting from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. and the awards presentation at 2:00 p.m. Pre-registration is $15 dollars and day of registration is $20. The first 20 entries will also receive a free t-shirt. Registration for the tractor show is 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. with a $5 entry fee and judging starting at noon. Arrival time for the truck show is 10:00 a.m.
For more information about the weekend, follow the Quanah Chamber of Commerce on Facebook, call them at (940) 663-2222 or visit their office, located at 220 South Main Street in Quanah.