Ready or not, fall finally arrived this week with a cold front that brought some much needed rain, cooler temperatures, and a push in autumn background colors.

Fall weather came just in time for the arrival of the 40th consecutive instance that Albany and Clinton County bids an invitation to the rest of the world to . . .

Come See It Our Way!

Since 1980, local residents, former residents and a host of visitors have come together on the third full weekend in October for the annual fall homecoming and celebration, the Foothills Festival.

Several years into the event, Foothills organizers, facing a schedule that was chock full and leaving little room for expansion, decided to move a few events to the weekend prior to the main lineup, and that’s exactly where we are this weekend.

Come See It Our Way!

The Albany, Kentucky Foothills Festival, gets off to its normal early start this weekend with three events on Saturday and another long-time traditional event on Sunday afternoon.

Beginning at 9:00 a.m. Saturday, with registrations, the annual Foothills Festival Baby Show will once again be held at the Clinton County High School, with the pageantry portion of the baby show set to begin at 10:00 a.m.

[Editor’s note: Some schedules, including the one printed in this week’s Clinton County News special section, incorrectly place the Baby Show at the Learning Center – the show will be held at the high school.]

For information about the Baby Show, contact Rose Hunter: 606-306-2466.

Also on Saturday, a new event comes to the Foothills Festival lineup of pageantry with the Miraculous Miracle Pageant at the Clinton County Learning Center.

The premier edition of this event is open to any male or female newborn to 99 years old with an intellectual/developmental/physical disability and is open to Clinton residents or non-residents alike.

The pageant has no entry fee, and registration gets underway at 12:30 p.m. (for hair and make-up preparations) with the actual pageant beginning at 2:00 p.m.

On Saturday night, the traditional lineup of pageants take place at the Clinton County Learning Center at 6:00 p.m. and will eventually see winners crowned in five separate categories.

A Prince and Princess (ages 5-7), Little Miss (5-7), Junior Miss (8-11), Teen Miss (12-14) and Miss Foothills (15-21) will be crowned during the night’s lineup and expect to see these winners throughout the full Foothills Festival schedule, helping with awards and playing the role of ambassador for the Foothills contests.

Admission to the Foothills Pageants contests will be $3 and additional information may be learned by contacting Kimberly Stockton: 606-688-0400.

On Sunday, October 13, the final early Foothills Festival event will once again bring people together at the Clinton County Learning Center for the annual Foothills Old Time Gospel Singing.

Getting underway at 2:00 p.m., the Gospel Singing was one of the first events on a Foothills Festival schedule, but was dropped for a few years before being “rescued” by local Gospel music enthusiast Ricky Brown, who has kept the gathering alive ever since.

A separate article in this week’s Clinton County News Foothills Festival special section, outlines Brown’s planned lineup of entertainers for this year’s Old Fashioned Singing.

As mentioned previously, this week’s Clinton County News includes our annual Foothills Festival Preview, a special section full of news about the contests, scheduled entertainers and, of course, a host of photos from last year’s 39th (XXXIX) Foothills Festival, just to remind you how much fun we had in 2018.

Come on out and enjoy these early events this weekend, and get geared up for the full schedule ahead and the Foothills XL.

Once again . . .

Come See It Our Way!