The theme for this year’s International City Fall Festival is “Remembering Yesterday, Celebrating Tomorrow.”

That is a good theme for this column as well, since I remember the first few International City festivals, which started back in the mid ’80s.

Back then, the festival was more of a birthday party held on Jimmy Perkins Memorial Field complete with a giant birthday cake. But the new and improved International City Fall Festival is not only a celebration of Warner Robins’ history but of our future as well.

I sat down with Ken McCall, owner of McCall’s restaurant on Commercial Circle. Besides making the best chicken salad anywhere, McCall is also president of the Warner Robins Downtown Development Authority, which is sponsoring the festival.

The Downtown Development Authority has expanded on the original Perkins Field location, and this year’s International City Fall Festival, to be held Sept. 29, will have activities there and on Commercial Circle.

There will be arts and crafts, music, food and more music. The day will be filled with something for everybody. Two stages, one on Commercial Circle and one on Perkins Field, will ensure that music fills the air all day.

Also at the Commercial Circle site will be a large children’s area sponsored by the Warner Robins Jaycees with assistance from the Warner Robins Moose Club, complete with inflatables and other activities like some old-fashioned sack races.

The highlight of the day will be a performance at 3 p.m. by country music artist, Colby Dee, the daughter of a former Miss Warner Robins Mary Ann Branch Coskery. Colby Dee will also be emceeing the results of a barbecue contest.

“We wanted to do something that would get people down here,” said McCall, explaining the idea behind starting the International City Festival back up last year. “We want people to know that we do have a downtown area in Warner Robins, and it is worthy of revitalizing and preserving.

“People think of a downtown as the quintessential mainstream downtown, but that has never been Warner Robins.”

McCall said most of the buildings on Commercial Circle were built in the 1940s.

The parameters of the Downtown Development Authority include North Houston Road, Russell Parkway, Ga. 247 and Elberta Road.

The authority receives no money from the city, so the International City Festival vendor fees and sponsorships are the only income the authority receives.

The festival is free to the public.

Right now, the authority has been doing smaller beautification projects in the area, with the hope that as the festival and income grow, larger projects will be possible.

Contact Alline Kent at 396-2467 or allinekent@cox.net.