Big, free community celebration a family affair set for outside Modesto’s Gallo Center

The Gallo Center for the Arts is opening its grounds this weekend for a free community celebration.

The Family Fun Festival is set for Sunday, Sept. 24, from 1 to 4 p.m. on the Gallo Center Plaza and its Modesto Rotary Music Garden.

In addition, shows are planned for inside the theater including two free during the festival and one ticketed performance after the event.

Sponsored by the city of Modesto, it will be the first such festival to be held at the Gallo Center, Ryan Foy, director of produced theater and special programming at the center, said in an August story in The Bee.

Several free family activities are planned, including music, dancing, chalk art, lawn games, exotic reptiles, face painting, vendors, book giveaways, balloon animals and more. There will be food and drink for sale on site.

There’s also a free show with two performances set for inside the venue’s Foster Family Theater. “Charlie the No Good, Really-Rotten, Cheat-A-Saurus Rex” teaches the importance of honesty and friendship, according to the center’s website. It’s geared for children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The shows are at 2 and 4 p.m. and seats are first come, first served.

After the festival, “Aga-Boom — Theatre of Physical Comedy and Circus Arts” will perform in the Mary Stuart Rogers Theater at 4 p.m. Tickets for the family-friendly show are $15 to $45.

“We’re really excited about (the) program,” Foy said of the festival in the August story. “It’s going to be a really fun, family event that anyone can come to.”