By MACKENZEE SIMMS | Staff Writer

HELENA – With live music, carnival rides, dozens of vendors and the highly-anticipated duck race, people from all over the state gathered on the banks of Buck Creek celebrate the annual Buck Creek Festival on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11-12.

As one of the biggest events in Helena, the two-day festival draws thousands of visitors to Buck Creek every year.

According to Buck Creek Festival President JoAnna Harman, the event offers fun for the whole family and remains one of Helena’s most popular festivals. The Buck Creek Festival has continued to grow every year, including this year.

“We feel like we did really well (this year),” Harman. “There was a big crowd. I would say there were a minimum of 6,000 people that came through the festival.”

The festival kicked off on Friday with a string of musical performances from JD and The Man and A1A. On Saturday, several acts delighted guests such as Hooley, Big Silver, The Negotiators, The M-80s and the Helena High School Jazz Band.

In addition, parents perused the offerings of more than 70 vendors in attendance while children played in the designated kid’s zone. The kid’s zone consisted of several rides and inflatable activities such as obstacle courses and classic carnival games.

While shopping, listening to live music and eating from various food trucks, attendees prepared for the highlight of the Buck Creek Festival: the duck race.

Serving as a fund raiser for the HHS band, the duck race is the most famous part of the Buck Creek Festival.

Every year, organizers release hundreds of plastic rubber duckies, filling the waters of Buck Creek with a parade of yellow ducks. As the ducks cascade down the waterfall, volunteers stand on the banks of the river to catch all of the ducks to avoid polluting the waterways.

Currently, Harman is the president of the Buck Creek planning committee, but before that, she was in charge of the duck race for several years.

“It’s a big thing for me to see (the duck race) happen and to see everybody get excited for it,” Harman said. “The kids love it, and that’s a big part for me.”

With another festival in the books, Harman shared that it’s time to turn her attention to the festival for next year.

“We plan it for about a year,” Harman said. “We don’t take much of a break. We jump back in within the next few weeks, trying to recap what went well, what needs to change and anything like that.”

But despite the amount of work that goes into the festival, Harman shared that seeing her community gather for a weekend of fun makes all the expended energy worth it.

“It’s a year’s worth of work that comes together on that one weekend,” Harman said. “The best part is just seeing the people in the park having a good time, enjoying the music, enjoying the vendors and just seeing the crowds. It makes all of us really happy.”