Navigation

Sister Bay Talks Fall Fest

The Sister Bay Advancement Association (SBAA) hosted a meeting to solicit comments and ideas for improving its annual Fall Festival January 13. SBAA Coordinator Paige Funkhouser said there were a lot of good ideas brought forward.

Fall Fest draws thousands to the streets of Sister Bay each October.

“We talked about adding some family-friendly activities, what to do with the ping pong drop, and touched on how to handle alcohol,” she said. “There were about 20 people there, including a lot of faces we don’t normally see.”

Fall Fest is Sister Bay’s marquee event, launched 60 years ago as a season-ending celebration for the local crowd. It has grown into one of the largest festivals on the peninsula and one that visitors make into a family tradition. The ping pong ball drop used to be a central event, with balls dropped from a helicopter flown over Bay Shore Drive, but the FAA put a stop to that practice two years ago. Interest in the activity has since dropped, and the SBAA is searching for a way to re-invent it. One idea is to have businesses shoot the balls from their rooftops, rather than shoot them from a fire truck driven through the crowd.

There was also discussion about adding events for children and teenagers and offering park-and-rides from the top of the hill. Funkhouser said the meeting was just a start of planning for next year’s festival and there will be more opportunities for people to get involved and share ideas later this year.