By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer 

PELHAM— Each year, First Baptist Church of Pelham hosts a fall festival with free food and drinks, carnival games and inflatables. This year’s festivities took place Oct. 4 from 4-6 p.m., and it was the biggest one yet.

“It’s our way of showing the community we are here for them and we love them and showing them Christ’s love,” said Director of Preschool and Children’s Ministries Jonathan Williams.

About 2,000 people came out to enjoy the seven inflatable attractions and more than 20 carnival-style games with candy. Williams said they also gave out about 2,000 hotdogs and drinks, and about 500 bags of popcorn.

Lazy Boy BBQ and Frios Gourmet Pops were also at the event to sells addition treats to the guest.

“We’ve had lots of people who been thankful for the event and than we were there,” Williams said. “There were lots of folk not from our church who attended.”

This is the church’s second year hosting the fall festival outside of First Baptist Church’s campus. The event has been going on for 20 or more years, according to Williams, and the crowds have gotten so big they moved the event to Pelham Park.

“My favorite part is just seeing whole community come together and seeing our church show the love of Christ to our community,” Williams said. “It was really good. We had a great time.”

Usually, the fall festival is closer to Halloween, but this year, Williams said they are having several neighborhood events Oct. 31. These will be “mini fall festivals” held at people’s homes, and each one will be a little different.

Some might have hot chocolate and others may have popcorn, but Williams said they are all open to the public and will have games for children. The events will be set up in time for trick-or-treating.

There will be one neighborhood event in Pelham, two in Helena and one in Alabaster on Halloween.