3 Fall Festival Ideas to Reach Your Community
Photo by Tommy Bond on Unsplash
I know it’s only midway through August, but the Fall will soon be upon us and it’s time to work on your Fall Outreach. It’s what I call part of the big three, Egg Hunt, VBS, Fall Festival. In the kidmin world it’s one of the biggest outreaches of the year.
Fall festivals are weird. Because of their association with Halloween, they take many different forms and times. One church I served did a Big Fall event and a Halloween outreach. (We were overachievers.)
Before we jump into different kinds of events, we have to answer the first question. Who is this for? That may seem obvious to you, but you’d be surprised what your pastor and congregation wants/ expects.
Church Fall Festivals started out as a retreat and safe haven from all the evils of Halloween. It was designed to just have the church people come and not tell the community what you’re doing. As those events grew in popularity, churches started to look outward. They leveraged Halloween to reach the community and still provide a safe place.
So, we come back to the question. Who is this for? Are you going to do this just for your church or are you trying to reach your community. Answering this question first will guide your budget and planning process. It will also have a major impact on your marketing. (link to event communication)
Personally, I prefer to hold these events for the community and treat it like an outreach. We do have some scary costumes and people smoke in the parking lot. But I like to say you can’t get mad when you invite the community, and they act like the community. What we have to do is love them as Jesus did.
Over the years, I’ve done several different kinds of fall outreaches. They have varying degrees of success. That success was more dependent on the community and the church than the event itself.
1. Trunk or Treat
Trunk or treats are essentially a come and go event. Churches will leverage their large parking lots to bring in their community. You invite your church people to decorate their trunks and show off their style. Then, the visitors work their way through the trunks picking up candy along the way. Once they’ve gone through all the cars, many times, they’ll leave the church to go somewhere else.
Personally, I really like this kind of event. It’s easy to set up and manage and clean up is a breeze. The hardest part is getting enough trunks. I also like to add a bunch of other things to the Trunk or Treats, like inflatables, games at every car, and food. You can read how I take this event to the next level here.
2. Fall Festival
While a Trunk or Treat is come and go, a Fall Festival is asks people to stay. I don’t know what these festivals look like where you are, but for me that means a bunch of carnival games with candy as prizes. The church I grew up in did it for years and years. It started just for the church and by the time they decided to shut it down they had thousands from the community. In addition to the carnival games, you can have inflatables, hayrides, a gospel message and so much more. Whatever you can do to get the people to stay on your campus for the whole night.
These events are a ton of fun, and a ton of work. You need to have a lot of carnival games, like knock down the cans, or blow out a candle with a water gun, or fishing for candy. Get creative and invite other volunteers who can build to join in.
With both of these events, registration is key. You want to be able to follow up with the people who come and invite them back to church. There are a lot of different ways to do this, but I will give my favorite in this post.
3. Neighborhood Block Party
In the previous two examples, we invited the community to come to us. With a Neighborhood Block Party, we’re going to the community. Let me ask you this, what night, other than Halloween, do your neighbors happily open up their doors for strangers? I’m in the South where our hospitality is legendary, and I can tell you there’s not any. Halloween is the only night.
So instead of your church people turning off their lights and gathering all at one place, why not spread them out in your community? I’ve done this a few times with great success. I asked a few families that have lots of kids in their neighborhoods to open up their yards. Instead of just knocking on the door for candy, we’ll have an inflatable, a carnival game, or a photo booth. Whatever we can do to get people to stop on their travel from door to door. While there, our church people talk to them and begin to build a relationship.
As a church we’ll provide the activity if we can and the candy. We’ll put a little card on the candy thanking them for coming and inviting them to church. It’s important to strategically pick the right houses that have a good flow of kids and families. The houses that did raved about how much they loved hosting. However, the houses that didn’t have a good flow were disappointed. It may take a few years to figure out the best placement, especially if your church people have never been home on Halloween. But I think this could be the future of Fall Festivals.
“Instead of holding all the light on the darkest night, we take the light out and brighten our streets.”
Whatever event you choose to do, I hope and pray you reach more people and spread the love of Jesus. Let me know which event you’re doing at your church in the comments! I’m sure there are some events I’ve missed.
