Forget everything that was previously thought about the new “Fair at the Falls”. It is not some glorified tailgate with a few sandwiches and wimpy games. This Fair is unlike anything Potomac Falls students have ever seen before. Not only will there be a dunk tank and a petting zoo, but the Fair at the Falls will be something the whole community can go to; not just high school students who are hoping to dunk their favorite teacher into a pool of bone chilling water.

Kicking off the Friday before the Homecoming dance, during the hours prior to the football game, the Fair at the Falls will commence at 4:30 p.m. and conclude at 6:30 p.m.. Similar to the Block Party, the Fair will be in front of the school, where it will have lots of activities and a plethora of free food. “The first thing we thought [for the Fair] was ‘let’s make it free,’ because that makes people more inclined to come,” said Student Council Association sponsor Ms. Lexi Swinimer. Though it may sound like the Block Party, an event that in some ways was seen as a replacement of the parade, SCA wants to crush that expectation. “We decided we wanted to rebrand it [the block party], not as an alternative to the parade, but as something better than the parade,” said Swinimer. SCA wants to attract more people from the school as well as from the Potomac Falls community, and free food always brings a crowd. A loved part of any school event, the food provided will be what is typically found at a state or county fair; hot dogs, cotton candy, snow cones, and popcorn will be featured.

Adding to the effect of a “Fair” it will also include differently themed booths run by various clubs at school. However, most of these clubs have just recently started up, and there are worries that they may not be able to fully participate in the Fair. The early date of homecoming could complicate things for the Fair, because of the rush to come up with ideas for hallways, ways to ask, and themes for their booth. “That was a side effect of having homecoming so early, so what we did, is we reached out personally to some clubs, saying ‘we’ll provide the supplies, and you provide the people and set it up for us’. We’re trying to include all the clubs,” said Swinimer.

Not only is SCA trying to incorporate all the clubs at school, they also want the rest of the community to be at the Fair, and feel invited to the event. “We [SCA] are also passing out flyers at home football games, and they [SCA members] have been doing door knocking, which is going door to door introducing themselves and giving people a flyer and inviting them [to the Fair],” said Swinimer.  In the past, with the Block Party, many members of the community often felt awkward showing up to the tailgate-esque event, which was crawling with high school students. This year, SCA wants it to be different. They are promoting the event to River Bend Middle School as well as to surrounding elementary schools and encouraging families to attend. “We really want them to come to the school, we want them to feel welcome here,” said Swinimer.

 And if you’re itching to find out which teachers were unlucky enough to land themselves the hot seat in the dunk tank, rumor has it that there will be a lot of fun faces. “We really want Mr. Weeks, Mr. Ewald, Mr.Tully, Mr. White, Dr. Noto, Mrs. High, Mrs. Hoilman, Mrs. Keller, Mrs. Blair, Mr. Barton, and Mr. Murphy to be in the tank, but it’s not for sure yet. But since this is going in the newspaper, we are officially calling you guys out, please be in our dunk tank!” said a smiling Vice President junior Mark Mogensen.