Hundreds of pumpkins will be available for free at the Douglas-Hart Nature Center this weekend.

The center is sponsoring its Fall Family Festival, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Tina Hissong, executive director of the center, said anyone coming to the festival will be allowed to decorate and take home a pumpkin.

She said there will be numerous other activities available at the festival for free. The activities include a costume contest, face painting, carnival games, scarecrow stuffing and various other arts and crafts.

Hissong said there will be refreshments provided including apple cider, caramel apples and kettle corn. She said there will be a musical performance by the group Motherload from 1 to 3 p.m.

The festival is sponsored by the First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust.

“It’s a great opportunity for people to come and enjoy the fall,” Hissong said.

She said the festival will be good for Eastern students and their families, but students will still enjoy themselves if their families are not visiting.

“We would love to have them come over,” Hissong said. “It’s a great place to kind of take a walk with your family or have a picnic. We have piles and piles of clothes for the scarecrow stuffing game. We will also have a needle in the haystack game where kids can find toys in a giant haystack.”

Hissong said the center often has 300 to 600 people attend each festival but that it can depend on the weather.

“We’re supposed to have some great weather, so it should be well attended,” Hissong said. “We’re expecting something within the 500 to 600 range.”

Seth Schroeder can be reached at 581-2812 or scschroeder2@eiu.edu