Community members are invited to attend the St. Mark's Lutheran Church Fall Festival on Saturday, Sept. 18, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The entire church property will be utilized for the event, which will include food sales, live music and children's activities. Admission is free.

Food that will be available for sale includes funnel cake, cotton candy and popcorn. The men's group, Beer, Brats and Bibles, will do a pig roast. There will also be chicken barbecue dinners available and homemade apple dumplings made by church members. It is recommended that apple dumplings be reserved in advance by calling the church office at 610-582-8167.

For children there will be a moon bounce, face painting, a barrel train ride and games.

Inside the fellowship hall silent auction baskets will be set up. Baskets will have various themes such as a coffee lover's basket.

New this year at the festival will be bingo, which will benefit the church's Senior Group, as well as a cornhole tournament. More information and a link to register for the tournament are available at http://www.stmarkbirdsboro.org/events by scrolling down to "St. Mark's Fall Festival 2021."

Community groups that will have displays will include Eastern Star, Thrivent Financial and Boone Area Library, Birdsboro, which will sell history books. The Knight of Columbus from Immaculate Conception Church in Douglassville will give out cotton candy, and Immaculate Conception Academy students will sell macaroni and cheese. Cub Scouts from the church will offer hot dogs and prepackaged popcorn. Members of the local chapter of the Sea Cadet Corps will have pretzels for sale and be in charge of traffic control.

A highlight of the day will be a performance by Dave Kline & The Mountain Folk Band. "We're bringing a very unique and entertaining five-piece band to the festival," said band leader Dave Kline. "It'll be the only concert this year where I'm using this particular configuration of musicians because I've arranged for father-daughter (duo) PJ March and Isabela March, from Wilmington, Del., to join me, along with Fiddling Ted Fenstermacher from Macungie and Rick Schmehl from Spring Township. Isabela is a champion fiddler and mandolinist, and it's very rare to be able to see her and her banjo-playing father in concert together."

The musicians will perform traditional Americana, bluegrass, folk and gospel music using traditional Appalachian Mountain instruments such as banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin and bass guitar. "We expect to dazzle the audience with some upbeat twin fiddle tunes as you'd hear on the Grand Ole Opry," Kline said. "We perform a well-balanced mixture of familiar cover songs along with some of my original music, which regular fans know and appreciate and newbies will enjoy, too."

The band will play several sets of music throughout the day. "It'll be very casual, creating a really nice interactive vibe between the audience and the band," said Kline. "One of our hallmark traits is that we give the audience many chances to sing and clap along."

In the past, Kline has provided worship music at the church. "I am not a member of St. Mark's, but I have been a part of many musical worship services there through the years with pastor (Jim) Farnsworth," he added.

St. Mark's is located at 5 Brooke Manor, Birdsboro. For more information about the Fall Festival, call 610-582-8167 or visit http://www.stmarkbirdsboro.org or http://www.facebook.com/StMarksBirdsboro.