GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Saturday was the perfect fall day for two first-ever events in Grand Rapids: Fall on Fulton and October on Ottawa.
Fall on Fulton let community members and visitors experience the city’s East Fulton business district.
“We lined the streets of East Fulton’s business district with vendors, popup makers, entertainment for children, dogs and the whole family,” explained Arielle Leipham-Ellis, the president of the East Fulton Business Association. “In addition to our regular businesses, which, bakeries, coffee, vintage clothing, hair salons, we’re going to have vendors who are participating in balloon animals, face painting. We have treats, food trucks. We have street entertainment, music.”
Organizers told FOX 17 Saturday that, even in its first year, Fall on Fulton showed an incredible amount of interest.
“I just saw it on Instagram, so they did really good advertising for it and I was like, ‘hey, maybe I should apply.’ So I applied last month and then I got accepted and so I was super excited to venture out to Grand Rapids to come to a market to do,” Theresa Orr, owner of Kind Bug Creations and a vendor at Fall on Fulton, said.
“We had over 75 interested vendors and really because, as you can see, it’s a sidewalk event. We have to keep it somewhat contained in order to have that clearance for folks to shop, so we have to keep it somewhat small, but we’re expanding with every event and we’re adding more folks. Today, we had to cap it at 50 vendors, but we’re hoping for next year to be able to close the street down and, you know, really blow this thing up,” Leipham-Ellis added.
Other participating vendors, including Jason Kakabaker, the owner of Cakabakery, said they even put in extra work for Fall on Fulton to showcase what makes them unique.
“We’ve been working pretty hard for today. We’ve been getting extra product out, worked long hours last night to prepare for this morning. We have apple spiced cinnamon rolls today. We have our chocolate chunk cookie, which we’re kind of known for. It’s a quarter-pound cookie and we salt it when it comes out. It’s a beautiful cookie, probably the best in the country,” Kakabaker said.
Meanwhile, just a few blocks away, part of Ottawa Avenue shut down for the first-ever October on Ottawa, which Social House hosted.
“We shut down the whole street between Weston and Fulton on Ottawa. We have 300-feet of tent. We have five bands all day from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. We have a DJ all day long playing. We are selling food, drinks, merchandise, the whole thing, so it is the very first October on Ottawa happening right downtown,” Phalesha Kyes, the event coordinator of October on Ottawa, said.
Kyes added that it’s all to bring together community members once again.
“Since the pandemic, there hasn’t been a lot of street festivals. There hasn’t been a lot of big energy things happening downtown outside of the normal, so you know a lot of the street festivals disappeared. They haven’t come back, so we wanted a reason to get people outside, get people in front of live music again, having that beer in your hand down in the street. It was just something that we have loved for so many years in Grand Rapids and since the pandemic it’s been gone, so we wanted to bring it back in a new, fun way,” Kyes explained.
Just like Fall on Fulton, October on Ottawa also has plans to expand in the coming years.
“Our hope in the future is that we can partner and collaborate with other organizations in Grand Rapids and take this, not just to Weston, but all the way to the end of the street and have two different concerts going on the same time at two different ends and just the whole city down here having a great time,” Kyes told FOX 17.
Fall on Fulton ran from 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Saturday.
October on Ottawa went from 11 a.m.- 11 p.m., with the afterparty at Social House running until 2 a.m.
