Lake Tobesofkee will host the first annual Oc-Tobo-Fest, which the event organizer says is the lake’s first major festival in its 56-year history, starting this Friday and running through Sunday.
The festival, sponsored by Visit Macon, will begin on Sandy Beach Park at 3 p.m and will go until 7 p.m. on Friday, and continue into the weekend from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Attendees will pay a $3 gate fee.
Performances will include Friday’s 4 p.m. square dancing demonstration from Western Squares and Saturday and Sunday’s 1:30 p.m. magic show by Mike Fuller. Blues band Big Mike Trio will perform at 4 p.m. on Saturday while Young America Music School Jammers are scheduled for the same time Sunday.
For Macon, one of Travel+Leisure's top October destinations, Gary Wheat, president of Visit Macon, says the event is a “new endeavor that kind of adds to the experience that is October in Macon.”
The organizer, Jen’s Markets and Events, pitched the concept to Tobesofkee Director Donald Bracewell in April. Bracewell then invited Wheat to the venue for the trio to discuss the event.
The idea stemmed from the Jen’s Markets owner and only employee, Jennifer McCafferty, when she realized the lake’s potential to host a fall festival. After approval, she gathered more than 40 vendors, three food trucks and a headline entertainer for each evening. McCafferty says she expects 1,000 people in attendance each day.
Wheat added that for Mercer students, the event is “a great opportunity to head out if they’ve not visited Lake Tobo. Just what a beautiful venue it is.”
“They don’t really have anything out here that much. It would bring more for the lake and the community out here because it really is beautiful,” says McCafferty.
McCafferty, 70, whose husband served in the military, left Macon when she was 26. After spending stints in Atlanta, Saudi Arabia, Oklahoma and Florida, she found her way back to Macon in June, where she now lives on Lake Tobesofkee’s shores.
McCafferty says she started her company “When I was about 56, I lost my big fancy corporate job and had to reinvent myself. I always liked being out and helping people, and it just kind of happened that way that it grew into a business.”
Potential guests can find performance schedules, activities and vendor information on Jen’s Markets and Events’s website. Anyone with questions or concerns can contact McCafferty via her email jennifer@jens-market.com.
Nathaniel Jordan '29 intends to major in Journalism at Mercer and hopes to work as an investigative journalist. His hobbies include poetry, photography and home cooking, and you can probably find him around Macon shopping or walking through local parks with his wife and son.
