St. Ann Catholic Church and School in Bartlett celebrated the return of its annual fall festival with three days of events, which culminated Saturday, Oct. 16.
There were festivities for everyone in the family, including an opening ceremony, kick off party, vendor fair, food truck fair, cornhole tournament, free and paid concerts, chili cookoff, a car show, raffle, online auction, curbside Italian dinner from Coletta’s and more at 6529 Stage Road.
Off-site activities included a bowling tournament at Billy Hardwick’s in East Memphis and a golf tournament at Stonebridge Golf Club.
“We’ve been planning this particular festival for two years,” said Stephanie Wilson Nichols, a spokesperson for the event. “So it seems like a long time coming. But I will tell you that in the planning process, we really didn’t skip a beat. We look forward to having so many people on our campus. And I’m enjoying all of the festivities and just bringing the Bartlett community together, but also the entire Mid-South community together.”
Last year, the festival went virtual. The only two in-person events were the golf and bowling tournaments. Last year, they introduced the curbside Italian dinner and online auction, both of which were typically hosted in the school’s gymnasium.
“We will forever keep our auction online for bidding because it opens it up to everybody,” Nichols said.
The festival kicked off Thursday with an opening ceremony, ribbon cutting and performance by the St. Ann Middle School Band. Father Ernie DeBlasio performed a blessing of the grounds and Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald issued a proclamation designating the weekend as Fall Fest weekend.
Later that evening, the church and school hosted a virtual drive-thru Italian dinner from Coletta’s with live music. Father Ernie DeBlasio blessed the food, and online auction items were previewed.
Friday, a kick-off party was held on the midway with musical entertainment by Almost Famous and food served by Central BBQ.
Read more: https://dailymemphian.com/section/suburbs/article/24751/st-ann-catholic-church-and-school-in-bartlett-fall-fest