This year’s Fall Festival will have a “Wild West” flavor and it will also include the inauguration of the college’s 14th president.
As Bethel continues a five-year series of special events leading up to its 125th anniversary in 2012, a common thread for 2010 is history of the American West. The 40th annual Fall Festival takes place Oct. 7-10 with most events Saturday, Oct. 9, on campus.
In line with the Wild West theme, there will be a performance by the Prairie Rose Rangers, including Bethel alumnus Orin Friesen, Saturday at 10 a.m.; the traveling exhibit “The Bison: American Icon” at Kauffman Museum, to which admission is free Oct. 7-10 with a Fall Festival button; a presentation at the museum at 11 a.m. Saturday by alumnus Steve Friesen, director of the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave in Golden, Colo., on Buffalo Bill Cody’s connection to Newton and its “Wild West” reputation of the late 1800s; a “Bungee Bull Ride”; and a Saturday evening “Buffalo Barbecue.”
On Sunday morning at 10 a.m. in Memorial Hall, the community is invited to the Fall Festival worship service and the inauguration of Perry D. White as president.
Fall Festival’s traditional beginning is Taste of Newton downtown on Thursday evening, Oct. 7, featuring all kinds of food and live entertainment presented by a wide variety of local groups and organizations. President White and his wife, Dalene, will be at the Bethel booth at Broadway and Main from 6-9 p.m. to meet and greet.
One event has been cancelled due to a schedule conflict -- the public night sky viewing scheduled for Friday night in Mabee Observatory.