Marshall Main Street's 2009 Fall Festival will be 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 29, in downtown Marshall with ghouls and toys for the girls and boys. The fall festival is a free event for families.

"Our goal was to provide a full evening at no charge for the children of the community. Parents can let their kids experience traditional trick-or-treating and everything that goes along with that, in a safe environment," said Bo Ellis, director of Marshall Main Street.

More than 50 local businesses are participating with individual booths for "freaky fun and frightening candy."

"Main Street coordinated with a lot of different entities to make sure our scheduling would work for everybody to have fun on the same day," said Ellis.

New this year will be the Hay Maze on the parking lot located behind the Weisman Center and the Pumpkin Pandemonium Puppet Show from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Michelson Museum.

"We had some very generous donations of hay from Dr. Frank Lower, and we are going to be setting the hay maze up early next week, after the rain moves out," said Ellis.

The hay maze is free to the public and will be open before the festival, contingent upon the schedule of volunteers available.

"The city parks and recreation crew is going to help us set up the hay maze," said Ellis.

After finding their way through the hay maze, kids can hop on for a "howling hayride."

"The hayride is thanks to Fish and Still, the John Deere dealership and Richard Kale and his wife Cheryl drive the tractor for us every year," said Ellis. "Sam Baxter's office also gave money. They are our biggest financial contributor."

Contributors make it possible for the festival to rent blow-up bounce houses for the children and cotton candy machines as well as provide fuel and hay for the hayrides.

"There will be a variety of activities whether you are talking about the hayride, getting candy or the haunted houses," said Ellis.

Mike's Shoe Store and Central Title will join forces again this year to have a haunted house designed small children and not terribly frightful, he said.

"We will also have hand sanitizers downtown that evening," said Ellis. "Good Shepherd Medical Center is providing automatic hand sanitizer dispensers in several locations to help parents prevent the flu bug."

Ellis expressed his gratitude to the dozens of businesses and individuals who have coordinated with Main Street to see the 2009 Fall Festival become a success. Included in his many thanks were sponsors: Sam Baxter, Fish and Still Equipment Co. Inc., Richard Kale, Richard and Christina Anderson, A perfect Party and Cypress Valley Bible Church.