Circus, music, fireworks: Galt Festival starts Thursday

The 45th annual Galt Festival begins at 5 p.m. Thursday will feature a circus, country music and the annual talent show featuring local signers, musicians and dancers.

The festival, which will have two nights of fireworks, musical entertainment, the festival parade, chili cookoff, diaper derby and pet scramble, will be open from 5 p.m. to midnight Thursday and Friday and from 3 p.m. to midnight on Saturday and Sunday.

The festival grounds are at Caroline and Chabolla avenues, southwest of City Hall. The festival replaced the Sacramento County Fair, which was held in Galt from 1937 to 1959, when that event was moved to Sacramento.

New to the festival will be a second night of fireworks, a chili cookoff and a slot-car booth, where children can race each other.

For $5, the public may sample professional and amateur chili entries on Saturday and vote for their favorite.

Thursday's talent show will feature about 30 musical acts from the Galt area.

"They're not aspiring professionals; they're just little kids with good voices," Sealey said.

In addition to child and teen performers, Harold Hobday, an 87-year-old harmonica player and a 1934 Galt High graduate, will perform at the talent show.

Other local flavor will come from Donnie and the Wayrads, a rock 'n' roll group that will perform at 8 p.m. Friday. Lead singer Don Maghoney grew up in Galt, attending Valley Oaks Elementary and Galt High schools.

The Galt Festival Parade, beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday, will feature Grand Marshals Ron and Leona Dameron, who chair Galt's Habitat for Humanity chapter. Ron Dameron is a former superintendent of the Galt Joint Union High School District.

The parade will be on C Street from Fourth Street to Civic Drive. There is no entry fee, and anyone may enter, right up to parade time.

Free admission to the festival will be offered on opening night, with $10 wristbands for unlimited carnival rides available.

Fireworks will be held at dusk on Friday and Sunday. The extra night of fireworks comes thanks to the Galt Festival Committee having its own fireworks booth this week, said festival chairwoman Corrine Sealey. The festival's 35-minute show will be held Friday, while the city of Galt's annual fireworks will be Sunday night.

Sealey says the best view of the fireworks will come from lying down on the grass at Veterans Soccer Field on Caroline Avenue because some of the fireworks will be low aerials.

Parking will be a bit easier this year, with about 1,000 close-in parking spaces provided by Boy Scout Troop 238 from Galt. Parking will be free, but donations to the Boy Scouts will be accepted, Sealey said. The entrance is just outside the Marian O. Lawrence Library, 1000 Caroline Ave.

Carnival wristbands sell for $15 at the carnival, but a limited number will be sold for $10 at the popcorn stand near the Beer Garden, and two businesses on C Street, Old Town Barber Shop and The Hardware Store.

For more information, call Sealey at 327-1957.