Fall Festival to debut in downtown Gainesville

Gainesville will host its first annual Fall Festival this Saturday.

The festival will be held in the newly renovated Bo Diddley Community Plaza from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and it will feature local craft businesses and direct sellers from the community, said Virginia Lynn-Brinson, the coordinator of the event.

“I wanted to do some events that would bring people to the downtown area in the evenings,” she said.

Although there are similar festivals going on in Florida during this time of year in Melrose, Newberry and Alachua, Lynn-Brinson said she thought it was time Gainesville had one of its own.

She said many home-based businesses in the community don’t get much exposure at local events. While Gainesville does have local arts and crafts shows during this time of the year, Lynn-Brinson said some of the local businesses she promotes are not allowed to participate in these events because their products are not handmade.

She said she started her event planning business, Virginia Lynn Enterprises, to promote those small businesses.

One of these small-business owners is Joy Hampson, a team leader with the direct-sales company Pampered Chef. She will celebrate her three-year anniversary with the company in two weeks.

Working for a direct-sales company is different from brick-and-mortar stores, Hampson said. By working from home, she said she can pick her kids up from school and go to the park with them while still earning an income for her family.

“I can kind of work my business around my life and not the other way around, which is really nice,” she said.

She said her ultimate goal is meeting people at the festival this weekend, because everything is word-of-mouth-centered for direct sellers. Having an event to network, pass out business cards and meet people is a great opportunity for any business, she said.

Lynn-Brinson is a small business owner, too. She runs her event-planning company, and she also promotes her own invention: a reusable, multipurpose pouch that’s the size of a sandwich bag and has an extra pocket on the front.

She said she invented it when her daughters were younger, because she would always have to hide their lunch money when they went to school.

“There are products like it on the market, they just don’t have a pocket,” she said.

The Fall Festival will feature live music and food vendors. Of the 56 vendors at the festival, some will be businesses that make their own jewelry, soap and clothing, along with the direct sellers.

Lynn-Brinson said a few nonprofit companies will also be at the event. She said the event will be kid-friendly, featuring a children’s corner with face painting, vendors selling books, a craft table and a cakewalk.

Being a family person, Lynn-Brinson said she wanted the event to be something parents could take their children to on a Saturday night. Even more, she said she wants to help those parents like Hampson who are running small businesses and running after children at the same time.

“I’m a mom,” she said. “I know how important it was when my kids were younger to be able to provide a living for them.”