By Jillian Fontaine |Beacon festival intern

Caramel apples, donkey rides, pie-in-the-face contests and leaf raking relays entertained nearly 20 people Saturday as local residents celebrated the recent harvest.

Pick-up trucks and golf carts dotted the driveway leading to Granary Row, site of the annual Post-Harvest Festival Afternoon. Several activities were held.

The as-expected turnout surprised no one as revelers gleefully smashed one another in the face with freshly baked apple and pumpkin pies. Several near injuries were reported but no trips to the emergency room resulted.

Rez Trentnor, a 7th grader at Bass Lake Middle School, said the festival, his first since moving to Bass Lake with his family, ‘beat the pants off those other crappy things we used to go to.”

What crappy things Trentnor was referring to was not clear, but one thing was perfectly clear: a splendid time was had by all.

Bake Lake resident Brenda One brought a pie for the pie-in-the-face contest.

Several donkeys escaped the makeshift corral they were in and trampled 47 dozen mums brought in for the event.

Festival Afternoon coordinator Jennifer Sparkle, of Jen’s Ribbon Cutting, was thrilled by the turnout.

“This year I think we had the second or third largest number of people in attendance,” Sparkle said. “Other years were better but some were worse. We’re already planning for next year.”