Last year’s Fall Festival drew more than 250 visitors to A.W. Brown Pet and Garden Store, Marketing Coordinator Chris Goossens said.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
EAST LONGMEADOW — A.W. Brown’s Pet and Garden Store will host its second Annual Fall Festival on Sept. 21 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at its location at 144 Shaker Rd. in East Longmeadow.
The event will feature local vendors from Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut as well as giveaways, free samples and food trucks, Marketing Coordinator Chris Goossens told Reminder Publishing. Giveaways will include a $100 gift card while free samples will be available from the products sold at A.W. Brown Pet and Garden Store.
Other attractions will include kids games and activities such as face painting and building bird houses in addition to surprise live animals from the zoo at Forest Park and Education Center, Goossens stated. Items sold by vendors will include autumn-themed and locally made products.
This year’s festival will welcome vendors such as Baba Yaga Ceramics, Dave’s Wood Carvings, Ginger Roots Farm to Bakery Co., Hampden County Beekeepers Association, Mack Soaps, Mimi’s Blessings: Soy Wax Candles and Mandles, Sew Much By Sydney and Willow Barn Designs, according to A.W. Brown Pet and Garden Store.
The attending food trucks will be Dev’s Mac N’ Eats and Sweet Memories Donuts, Goossens said. He stated that approximately 25 vendors will be at the fall festival.
The festival will not require a cost for attendance or for vendors. “As a small business, we don’t believe in charging other small businesses to be at the festival,” Goossens explained.
A.W. Brown’s first hosted a Fall Festival in 2023 in celebration of the company’s one year anniversary of becoming employee-owned, Goossens said. This transition occurred in December 2022 after more than 50 years in business.
This year’s event will focus on bringing together the community and bringing back the event that so many people enjoyed, Goossens stated, noting that the festival “went really well last time.”
Although the Sept. 21 event will have many new vendors, Goossens noted that the event will not have any major changes from the previous year.
Last year’s Fall Festival saw between 250-300 visitors come to A.W. Brown Pet and Garden Store. This year, Goossens estimated that the event will welcome at least 400 people. “We’re very excited. We’ve had a lot of interest [for this year’s festival],” he said.
Similar to 2023’s festival, this year’s event will be partially inside A.W. Brown’s warehouse and partially under a large event tent, Goossens said. In this way, the event will be partly outside but still under a covering in case of bad weather.
“We are thankful to be a staple in the community,” Goossens said, emphasizing that the company was looking forward to sharing the festival with visitors.
A.W. Brown Pet and Garden Store is still looking for 4-5 vendors for the Sept. 21 event. For more information about the event or to ask about being vendor, contact Goossens directly at marketing@awbrown.com.
Additional information is also available under Events on the company’s website at awbrown.com. There is no rain date for the event.
