Downtown Marshalltown has been the location of scads of activity this week, and it did not stop Thursday after RAGBRAI riders left town. Activities, games and happy children running around chasing bubbles continued Saturday with the Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD) Ridiculous Day.

One business even took the Ridiculous Day opportunity to make its downtown debut — the Face Painting Fairy owned by Logan Luense.

“I love to make kids smile and I like to be artistic,” she said, as she placed the finishing touches on a Super Mario mustache. “I thought this would be the perfect opportunity in the summer when I am not teaching. Doing community events and bringing a little smile to a kid’s face is really fun. It’s been a great time.”

Kids lined up for their turn to sit in Luense’s chair and receive a chosen design on their face. Even though the service is new, she has become familiar with the designs by painting them on her students’ faces.

“That was a good practice opportunity,” Luense said. “I feel like I do unique things which kids are interested in, like Lilio and Stitch and Mario.”

While it was Luense’s first time offering the service downtown, it was not her first event. For her introduction, she chose Pride in the Park, where she practiced painting bracelets and upper arms for adults. The latter artwork is what Luense really wants “to get into.”

“I want to learn more than what I am featuring today,” she said.

Luense does not have an age limit for her service. She has painted on her grandparents and on her 2-year-old child. There is also not a calendar limit for the Face Painting Fairy, as Luense intends to continue community events after the 2026-27 school year begins.

“I want to do Oktemberfest and will do some birthday parties for people who have asked,” she said. “Until I decided to try this, I did not know our community really needed face painting. I’ve had a few parents and friends reach out. It’s awesome to see. It’s a hit.”

As Luense applied face paint, MCBD Executive Director Danille Lekin was outside the tent, just watching the process and enjoying the annual Ridiculous Day.

“We’re always excited to bring people downtown,” she said. “We just had RAGBRAI and lots of non-local folks, so this is a nice opportunity for residents to get down here and support our businesses and spend some time as a community.”

Lekin noted that some of the restaurants which were slated to participate in the MCBD event actually sold out during RAGBRAI.

“This year was really tough,” she said. “RAGBRAI was a huge undertaking and MCBD had a huge role in that planning.”

Next year MCBD will not have to worry about RAGBRAI, but Lekin got some ideas for the 2027 Ridiculous Day. She would like to bring the Unicycling Unicorn next year and continue live music performances.

“The more we can bring in, the better. I would like to see this a little bit bigger next year, so we’re going to work toward that,” Lekin said. “If I can activate all of downtown, I will, but we need volunteers to make it happen. We’re just super grateful to the people who are out here, and appreciative of everyone who comes out to support our events and downtown community, because that is what Ridiculous Day is about.”

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.