The 2019 Carbondale Fourth Friday Fair took place on Friday, Aug. 23 and drew a large crowd of people to the town square.  

The fair takes place once a month on every fourth Friday from May to October and has events such as games, craft shows, vendors, live music and contests.  

The Fourth Friday Fair has a lot of events for kids and the contests give them a chance to win back-to-school prizes.  

Meghan Cole, Executive Director of Carbondale Main Street, said the Fourth Friday Fair is in its eighth year and is held annually at the town square.  Vendors for this event are volunteers and the fair has about 10-20 booths.  

Cole said the main purpose of the event is to draw people to Carbondale’s downtown area.

“Carbondale Main Street puts on many events over the course of the year and our mission is to promote and improve downtown Carbondale,” Cole said. “When we present an event like the fair, the goal is to increase foot traffic downtown, bringing family friendly entertainment into our district.”

This year is the first year that the fair started raising money for charity. 

The money from the fair is donated to a different charity each month.  This month, they donated to St. Francis Care and chose “Pup’s Night Out” as the theme.

Melissa Triplett, an attendee at the Fourth Friday Fair, said “I like that they are raising money to help St. Francis Care support pet adoption.” 

Carbondale Community Arts Center is a regular vendor at the Fourth Friday Fair and people came to their booth to decorate handkerchiefs for themselves or their dogs.

“We always do a community arts activity at the fair for free and it is open to anyone who wants to participate,” Lisa Jansen, Director of the Carbondale Community Arts Center, said. “We try to tie into the theme of each fair.”

 The fair has a different theme every month and the activities usually go along with that theme. For example, in May of this year, the fair had a bike rodeo, which is a bicycle obstacle course for kids with lessons on how to ride a bike. 

“Many kids actually won free bikes,” Cole said. “We had the bike rodeo in May, which is National Bike Month, with the help of the Rotary Club.” 

Cole said the fair is a lot of fun for families and it gives the people of downtown Carbondale something to do on a nice evening. 

Staff reporter Bethany Rentfro can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @BethanyRentfro

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