Contributed by John Dersham, Executive Director
FORT PAYNE, Ala. — Beautiful weather, clear skies, some nice fall colors, and a whole lot of visitors and locals came out last weekend for the 35th Annual Mentone Colorfest. Fall season has become a favorite time for our visitors to come to DeKalb County.
We are, in my opinion and many other people’s opinion, the prettiest county in the state and no doubt we get the prettiest fall color for our visitors to enjoy. This is why so many out of town people plan on Mentone Colorfest weekend as the time to come to town. They combine this wonderful weekend fall festival filled with artisans, musicians and eateries with the beautiful fall landscape up on Lookout Mountain.
This area includes Lookout Mountain Parkway, DeSoto State Park and Little River Canyon National Preserve and lots of B&B lodges, rental cabins, campgrounds and an abundance of wilderness areas to witness gorgeous color changes each year.
Colorfest may have set an attendance record again this year and vendors who set up to sell their goods at Colorfest say it was a banner year for sales. Hey, what’s not to like when you have a booth on the brow of Lookout Mountain overlooking the colorful valley below.
This festival is a favorite among locals, vendors and visitors. It provides a fantastic getaway weekend that everyone enjoys especially when picture perfect weather accompanies the weekend. The only down side this year was that our ongoing drought has left our waterfalls totally dry for the first time in most people’s lives.
If you live here and have not been to Mentone Colorfest in awhile, you need to come back. It seems to be improving every year.
In addition to Colorfest, we had our last Third Saturday Cruise In on Saturday night in downtown Fort Payne. This was our best attended year for the event since it began in 2011. Fort Payne Main Street moved its Block Party to the Coal and Iron building this time. There was a bar with tables set up on the patio and we celebrated Oktoberfest with a German dress up photo both inside the Coal and Iron building. It was a blast.
From all of us at DeKalb Tourism we want to thank the planning committees and the local governments in Mentone and Fort Payne for creating, hosting and working hard to make these special events a true joy for locals and a great reason to come visit us from out of town.
Thanks everyone!
