Park district holds Fall Festival at Palatine Stables

Children playing in the warm fall sun against a backdrop of fall trees exploding with color - what could be better?

Throw in some horses, ponies, pumpkins and crafts and you have the recipe for a wonderful fall day.

Palatine Park District held its annual Fall Festival at Palatine Stables again this year. The event would normally draw upward of 2,000 attendees, said Palatine Stables Head Trainer Toni Bruns.

Concern over the pandemic and COVID-19 restrictions limited attendance to just 128 scheduled visitors this year.

Social distancing and masks were required as families rotated through different stations.

"This year, we had them all go online and preregister for the event. We were able to limit it to 32 every hour and 15 minutes, and then we broke down that time into four different staging locations," said Bruns.

There were pony rides, pumpkin decorating, fall-themed make-and-take crafts, and a selfie station with a live horse, all wrapped up into a family event for children ages 3-10 accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.

Bruns was excited to be able to do something for the community.

"We haven't had many events able to be pulled off, so we came up with this idea of a safe fall festival," she said.