CONTRIBUTED PHOTO People gather outside of St. Mary Catholic Church for a past Francis Fest event. The St. Francis of Assisi Parish is hosting Francis Fest 2022 on Oct. 9, following an outdoor bi-lingual Mass in front of St. Mary Catholic Church, located at 9 W. Linn St.

The Marshalltown St. Francis of Assisi Parish will be hosting their annual Francis Fest on Oct. 9 this year, and the entire community is invited out to enjoy the fun.

The Sunday event will begin with an outdoor bilingual Mass at 10:30 a.m. in the space just south of Saint Mary Catholic Church, located at 9 W. Linn St., and Francis Fest activities will begin immediately after Mass and run until 4 p.m.

Food tickets can be purchased once the Mass concludes (about noon), and a wide variety of Mexican and Salvadoran food will be available, as well as pork burgers, brats and a range of other sweet treats and goodies. In addition to food, children’s games and musical entertainment will be going on throughout the day, and there will be three raffles to sign up for in the afternoon with prizes drawn at the end of each hour.

St. Francis Hispanic Minister Sister Chris Feagan is one of the coordinators of Francis Fest, and she feels that it brings the Marshalltown community together.

“It creates a great sense of community, not only the day of, when people come and enjoy each other’s company, but leading up to that. The participation of people and getting things ready and in donating things and working together. It’s a win for everybody,” Feagan said.

The St. Francis parish youth will also have the opportunity to get involved with the event, and they will be assisting by supervising the children’s games.

Feagan said that Francis Fest is historically well attended, and though the name of the event has changed over the years, it has been an annual staple for over 20 years. It was previously known as the Fall Festival and Festival on First, but with St. Mary Church and St. Henry Church merging to become St. Francis of Assisi church in 2019, it has adopted the name Francis Fest.

The event also takes place right around the feast day of the parish’s patron saint each year, which falls on Oct. 4, so the event doubles as a celebration for that as well.

“Hopefully it will be a good weather day, and it is just a wonderful day. A lot of people come and just spend the whole day until we’re finished and then they go home. And people come and go, but there seems to be a lot of people that just come and enjoy the time,” Feagan said.

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Contact Susanna Meyer at 641-753-6611 or

smeyer@timesrepublican.com.