Salamanca's Falling Leaves Festival

Salamanca Chamber of Commerce

Falling Leaves Festival

By Ruth Harper

The Western New York region is beautiful, especially during the fall months when the hills are filled with trees of bright oranges, reds and yellows. Salamanca area residents can celebrate its beautiful town and community at the 33rd Annual Falling Leaves Festival Oct. 1 (5-9 p.m.), Oct. 2 (11 a.m.-9 p.m.) and Oct. 3 (10 a.m.-5 p.m.) at Jefferson Street Park.

In 1975, members of fraternal and service organizations in the Salamanca area noticed a serious problem: Residents’ pride in their hometown had declined and something needed to be done. So, Paul D. and Sandra Formica formed the Salamanca Positive Action Committee (SPAC). The committee’s mission is “to develop ideas to restore civic pride, improve the look of Main Street and attract new businesses to the area,” according to the Salamanca Chamber of Commerce website.

SPAC hosted the first Falling Leaves Festival Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 1976, in various locations: Jefferson Street Park, old City Hall, the mall and Jefferson Street itself. The committee ran the festival for seven years after that before handing it to the Salamanca Area Chamber of Commerce. In the early 1990s, the City of Salamanca took the reins for a few years until the chamber reclaimed the event and continued running it up to this year.

Judging from the wide array of activities and events, this year’s festival won’t disappoint.

“The festival has something that the whole family can enjoy, whether it’s arts and crafts or, new this year, the outdoors sports show,” said Jenny Ingrao, events specialist at the Salamanca Chamber of Commerce.

Just as in years’ past, the festival will feature a number of vendors, including those selling food and arts and crafts. Many festival attendees love interacting with the vendors, some of which have been coming to the festival for a number of years.

“A lot of food vendors look forward to this event,” Ingrao said. “One vendor in particular has been doing this festival since it first started 33 years ago. Locals who come back, they know to look for this vendor but they look for what’s new, too.”

Breanna Farner, 22, began attending the festival with her friends when she was around 12 years old. She said it gave herself and her friends an opportunity to see each other and have fun.

“It’s something that we do every year. It is kind of tradition. Salamanca doesn’t have a lot of traditions community wise,” Farner said. “Some local vendors come out and you get to see some of the new things they’re doing that year and it is a local event where you can go and talk to people you don’t always get to talk to.”

New this year, festival attendees can enjoy an outdoor and sportsman show. Fishing guides and various outdoor-related organizations plan to attend the festival. Visitors can also purchase items like guns and fishing poles and view ATVs on display, Ingrao said.

“We wanted to bring something new to the festival, so this is our idea of something that visitors and vendors would get a lot out of because Salamanca and this whole region has a lot going for itself in hiking, boating, fishing, things like that,” Ingrao said, “It’s kind of like a premier destination for that kind of activity.”

Music lovers can enjoy themselves, too. Three local bands are scheduled to perform during the festival. The Kokomo Time Band will play Saturday from 2-4 p.m. followed by Oliverio from 7-9 p.m. The LeftOvers (www.theleftovers.com) will jump in the spotlight Sunday from 3-5 p.m.

The Falling Leaves Grande Parade stars in the festival’s main role, allowing Salamanca residents to celebrate their hometown by watching or participating.

“We want the parade to focus on what we have here … and show our spirit of Salamanca,” Ingrao said. “It’s a way to highlight and showcase our community and show what Salamanca’s all about.”

Many Salamanca residents participate in the parade, including the mayor, Boy Scouts, the Pow Wow Princess and the Falling Leaves Queen.

The princess is chosen in September. The weekend before the festival, the queen competes against other Salamanca girls for her title. Farner won the Falling Leaves Festival Pageant in 2003 to become the Falling Leaves Festival Queen. She went through an interviewing process and an evening where she had to go on stage and answer questions. She said being involved in the pageant helped her create relationships.

“It is definitely unique because you get to interact with girls you wouldn’t normally interact with and you learn a lot about them so that’s kind of a fun experience,” Farner said.

The kids will have plenty to do, too. The festival offers a large carnival complete with tasty carnival treats and exciting rides. A balloon man will walk around to make balloons into shapes, including swords, crowns and monkeys, for kids. Animal-loving adults and children can also pet a few animals at the petting zoo.

Those looking to compete athletically can participate a 5K run/walk Saturday. Registration starts at 8 a.m. the day of the event. If hula hoops and hot dogs are more your thing, the Chamber has planned contests for that, too.

“There’s a hula hoop contest to see who can hula hoop the longest and a hot dog eating contest and a mixture of the two,” Ingrao said.

Or you can hit the sack in a bed race, in which teams of competitors decorate a bed on wheels an race to the finish line in hopes of beating other teams’ times. Ingrao said those interested in the bed races can get a team together and call her at the chamber’s office at (716) 945-2034 for registration information

She said the chamber also plans to host a miniature horse pulling competition.

“That’s just another great thing that families can enjoy and watch and do, which not too many people get to see.”