{"id":37547,"date":"2026-06-23T12:17:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=37547"},"modified":"2026-06-23T12:17:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:17:25","slug":"saturday-event-rocks-downtown-decatur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/saturday-event-rocks-downtown-decatur\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday event rocks Downtown Decatur"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Downtown Decatur Days, blessed by ideal weather, was a proverbial \u201cboomer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots of people, lots of vendors, lots of activities kept the downtown area extremely busy for a plus-four-hour period last Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A car show added to the multiple forms of entertainment for both kids and adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all that was going on, the event afforded the Decatur Fire Decatur Fire Department an opportunity to show off its newly-arrived $2.5 million aerial truck \u2013 and gave people the chance to check out the latest addition to city equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOverall, I thought Downtown Decatur Days went really well this year,\u201d said Executive Director Taylor Braun of Decatur Main Street, which puts on the annual event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had close to 80 vendors participating, which helped create a great atmosphere throughout downtown. The crowds were strong all day, and it seemed like there was always something happening wherever you went.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A newly-added Friday night event extended the former Downtown Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFriday night’s SINGO (a mix between bingo and music) was a great way to kick off the weekend and brought a nice crowd on the Madison Street Plaza, for it being the first time we have ever extended it to a two-day event,\u201d Braun noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn Saturday, we saw families, visitors, and community members enjoying everything from the vendors and food options to the car show, Kids Zone, entertainment, and ABC Real Estate Egg Drop Challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe are very happy with the turnout for Downtown Decatur Days,\u201d Decatur Main Street President Max Miller said. \u201cThe weather was very cooperative. It is great to see how much this event has grown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses in the downtown area played a large role in the annual festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne thing that stood out to me,\u201d Braun said, \u201cwas how busy downtown businesses seemed throughout the day, from the start to end of the event. It was great to see so many people walking around, exploring downtown, and supporting local businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also received a lot of positive comments from both attendees and vendors about the event and the variety of activities available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Kids Zone was especially popular with families, and the car show once again drew a lot of interest. The Egg Drop Challenge was also a fun highlight and brought a crowd together to watch the creativity of the participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Braun, the event went beyond just entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost importantly, it was wonderful to see downtown full of energy and people enjoying all that Decatur has to offer.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvents like this take months of planning and wouldn’t be possible without our volunteers, sponsors, vendors, downtown businesses, city departments, and community partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are very grateful for everyone’s support and are already looking forward to building on this year’s success next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller, too, pointed to the effort put forth by volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to give credit to a hard-working committee and to our executive director, Taylor Braun, for pulling this off,\u201d he exclaimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WINNERS: Mike Beitler was a big winner Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He won the raffle for a pair of Fuji electric bicycles courtesy of Rick’s Bike Shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Taylor Braun is with Mike Beitler, winner of 2 electric bikes.
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Second prize of $500 went to Tony Foor and third prize of $250 was won by Michelle Eicher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meghan Baczynski won the 50\/50 rafffle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The title of Little Miss Decatur Day 2026 was bestowed upon Emily Workinger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Downtown Decatur Days, blessed by ideal weather, was a proverbial \u201cboomer.\u201d Lots of people,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,14,15],"class_list":["post-37547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-community","tag-decatur","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Bike-winner.jpg?fit=955%2C920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37551,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37547\/revisions\/37551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}