Photo by Deb Gau Elizabeth Buyck and Maleize Juarez, the newly-crowned Little Miss and Little Mr. Balaton, waved to the crowd and blew bubbles in the Fun Fest grand parade Saturday.

BALATON — It was a familiar scene for Balaton’s town festival. The crowd was steadily growing in Lions Park as people set up lawn chairs in the shade and waited for the parade to come down Lake Avenue. Kids fidgeted with the plastic bags they brought to collect candy tossed from the floats.

“They’re coming!” one called when they heard the sirens from the line of fire trucks at the start of the procession.

Just a few days ago, a lot of the people present at the parade had been dealing with the heavy rain and flooding that swamped southwestern Minnesota. But in spite of some schedule changes, this year’s Balaton Fun Fest was going strong. 

“We’ve got a good group” of festival organizers, said Balaton Mayor Del Rutz. “They really had to adjust all of Friday night at the lake.”

“I was nervous on Thursday, when the water was lapping right up by the road by Benson’s,” said Julie Erickson, a member of the Fun Fest organizing committee. U.S. Highway 14 was the only thing between the high water on Lake Yankton and the gas station and store at Benson’s By the Lake. 

A couple of festival events had to be canceled this year, Erickson said. With a no wake order on the lake and flooding at the lakeside park, the Fun Fest boat parade couldn’t be held. A sand volleyball tournament had to be canceled too, because of flooding on the court.

But other events could be moved to Balaton’s main street, and Erickson said there was a good crowd for fireworks on Friday night at the Balaton Bay golf course.

“We’re fortunate we have this park,” Erickson said of Lions Park.

There was a lot going on in the park Saturday afternoon — everything from a petting zoo to class reunion for the Balaton graduating class of 1968. Just across the street from the park, a pedal tractor pull was underway.

Being able to continue with Fun Fest was a good thing, even beyond having a chance to get the community together and have a good time, organizers said. 

“For a lot of different (community) organizations, this is a time for fundraisers. They kind of count on those for their fundraising for part of the year,” Erickson said. “Even the vendors here, a lot of them are local.”