Fall Fest brings community, commerce to downtown Jonesboro

Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – People took to downtown Jonesboro Saturday afternoon, getting a feel of the fall season while enjoying some food, music, and having family-friendly fun.

The Downtown Jonesboro Association (DJA) held Fall Fest ‘25 on Oct. 11 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Union Park. The event featured several vendors, a pumpkin tree, live music, food, and activities for everyone.

Fall Fest has been a staple for at least five years, with event director Sarah Rickert saying it started after the success of Joy Fest.

“Everybody loved it, and they said, ‘Well, let’s do some more,’ and that’s when we started the seasonal event series, to focus on just bringing our community together, bringing families and friends together,” Rickert said.

In that time, Sarah Doss, executive director of the DJA, said they have seen consistent growth every year, citing a desire for residents to have family-friendly events.

“We’ve had more sponsors reach out to get involved and just continue to make it as local of an event as we can,” Doss said.

Not only does the event help bring the community together, but Doss said it helps bring more revenue to downtown businesses and shows people what the area has to offer.

“One of the common things that we fight is people who have downtown in their mind of what it was 20 years ago, who have lived here forever, and they don’t realize all that we have to offer, and all the revitalization and dollars, local dollars, have been funneled into downtown to make it as amazing as it is,” Doss said.

Both Rickert and Doss said they felt within the last few years, they have been seeing greater momentum behind their events they haven’t seen in years past, alluding to road closures impacting Main Street.

As for the future, they said they hope that momentum continues, as Fall Fest has already become a tradition for many people.

“I feel like we’re just going to continue with and see them [DJA’s events] grow and diversify and become better and better,” Doss said. “Making our downtown as vibrant and economically diverse as we can is really the driving force of getting people down here for events.”