Island Park Festival expected to draw thousands this weekend
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ISLAND PARK — Visitors and community members are invited to attend the twice-annual Island Park Festival on Labor Day weekend. Located in Island Park, “where Quakie Lane meets Highway 20,” the second festival of 2023 is expected to once again draw thousands of guests.
Organizers and vendors alike are getting ready to wrap up the festival’s second year this Friday and Saturday, Sept. 1 and 2. The festival is free to the public and will include live entertainment, a DJ, raffles and food trucks.
The Island Park Festival is the brainchild of Jean Philips and Connie Funkhouser. The two started the festival in 2022 with the intent of holding it in front of Funkhouser’s restaurant.
“Last Labor Day, I was at Connie’s Restaurant,” Phillips told EastIdahoNews.com. “There were three vendors there and there were tons of people who couldn’t get in to see what they were selling. We all had to stand in line to get into them.”
Phillips and Funkhouser had a conversation and decided to put together an event that would bring in more vendors to serve a sizable crowd. Over the next several months, Phillips used her 30 years of experience in event planning to get vendors to come out. The festival was a hit.
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Over 150 vendors signed up for the Pioneer Day festival in July, and vendor booths are completely sold out for the Labor Day event. The free horse-drawn carriage rides and the live chainsaw carving demonstration are returning. Smokey the Bear will make an appearance, too.
The Island Park Festival will be held Friday, Sept. 1 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and on Saturday, Sept. 2 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Sawtelle Mountain Resort at 4130 Quakie Lane.