Homecomers to bring vendors, rides, dunking booth to Uptown Jackson

The 111th annual Homecomers celebration revisits Uptown Jackson next week, with food, amusement rides, musical performances and the reappearance of a dunking booth.

Homecomers chairman Larry Koehler said the Jackson Jaycees decided to bring back the dunking booth at the event, which will be held Tuesday through Saturday.

"Years and years ago, back when I was a kid, the Jaycees always had a dunking booth out there, and it was always real popular," Koehler said. "It hasn't been there for a lot of years, but this year it will be back. So that'll be something different."

Koehler said the Jaycees informed him they would like to host a dunking booth.

"I said, 'Wonderful. Bring it on,'" he said.

There is also a new stage this year, which will be used as the grandstand. The stage from previous years "was getting very labor intensive," Koehler said.

"This will be the first year we use it," he said.

Homecomers will be held at the same location as last year, at East Main, North High and Court streets and Barton Square in Jackson, Koehler said.

Twelve to 15 carnival rides are scheduled for the event, according to Koehler. He was unsure of which rides would be present this year because of the fact ride availability can change without notice, he said.

There would be smaller rides on High Street, he said, along with "bigger ones" positioned around the courthouse and near the Baptist Church on High Street.

"That's up to the carnival. We'll have to wait until [it] shows up and see what [it's] got this year," Koehler said.

The beer garden was a new addition to Homecomers last year, and Koehler said because of the popularity it would be available again Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening.

"It went over pretty well, so we're going to continue with it," he said.

Koehler said there also will be at least 10 food vendors scheduled. Those vendors, he said, will be located in front of the courthouse on Main Street.

"If you go down at the other end of the street, I think the Methodist Church has one and the carnival has one more down there," he said.

Koehler said with the addition of the roundabout in Uptown Jackson last year, there were some parking issues, but he expects ample parking this time around.

Last year, Barton Street basically became a parking lot, he said, instead of being used for rides like it has in the past.

"The problem we had was with East Main Street and Barton Street both. When they did [the roundabout], they put a huge downward slope on them," he said. "I can't put food vendors on that anymore because the trailers can't sit level enough to be able to use them."

Koehler said the roundabout has "separated things and made it more difficult to plan."

"Parking is what it's always been. You come to Jackson, you find a place to park and you walk," Koehler said jokingly.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

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