Fall Festival Coming to Gambrills Sept. 10

The Gambrills Fall Festival is coming back, this time hopefully with better weather.

Several business owners in Gambrills are working to attract vendors and entertainment for the event, which is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 10 at Kaufmann’s Tavern.

All proceeds from the festival will go to support elementary schools that feed into Arundel High School. All of the PTAs from those schools will be offered a table for free with the opportunity to fundraise. The PTAs will also be offered packages of tickets to sell, with money going to Arundel High boosters.

Last year’s inaugural fall festival was sparsely attended due to heavy rains. This year, organizers have scheduled a rain date of Sept. 11.

The idea from the fall festival came from Kaufmann’s owner James King, along with Julie Upchurch, owner of the Little House of Flowers and Janet Garmen, owner of the Covenant Cottage shop. All three have been involved in “buy local” initiatives and have sought more attention for business that are lost in the shuffle between Crofton and Odenton.

"[Gambrills] is kind of this lazy little farm town that no one wants to talk about,” she said. “Gambrills is very large, and a lot of the businesses that say they’re in Crofton are actually in Gambrills. We do get kind of lost in the soup, definitely.”

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Upchurch said helping local schools was also a major motivation.  

“As more hardships fall to parents to subsidize the extra things in school, it’s a great way for the PTAs to take those funds,” she said.

King said about 25 vendors have already signed up, and that he hopes for about 1,000 visitors. Five bands are expected to perform live, and there will be alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, cotton candy and barbecue.

“We hope it will grow into a local tradition,” he said.

Tables at the Gambrills Fall Festival cost $50, or $45 if reserved before Aug. 1. Interested parties can call 410-570-9854. All checks should be made payable to Kaufmann’s Tavern, 329 Gambrills Rd., Gambrills, MD.