Murray Ice Cream festival brings sweet scoops

Story by Breanna Sill, Staff writer

A cold, sweet scoop of ice cream on a hot September day is what’s in store for patrons this weekend at Murray’s 16th annual Ice Cream Festival.

Hosted by the Murray Main Street Committee, the Murray Ice Cream Festival is back, starting at 4 p.m. Friday, for the sixth year in Murray’s Court Square, with a whole new look and feel, including a brand new attraction for kids.

“‘Spider Mountain’ is a new multi-purpose attraction with a rock wall, a ‘spider mountain,’ a giant slide and multiple euro-bungee cords,” Deana Wright, Program Director of Murray Main Street, said.

This year, the ice cream will be provided by Kroger, which will include many of its premium flavors.

At 8 p.m. Friday night in Murray’s court square, Celebrations! Party Rentals and Tents will be sponsoring a free, outdoor showing of the movie “Despicable Me” on a large inflatable screen.

If you go…

Friday

5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Murray Bank Scooper Bowl

Saturday

11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

I Scream Karaoke

Friday night from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Murray Bank will be sponsoring the Scooper Bowl. Four non-profit organizations in the Murray area, Kirksey United Methodist Church, West Kentucky Mentoring, Soup for the Soul and Calloway County 4-H, will compete against each other to make the best bowl of ice cream.“The movie screen is 50 feet wide and much taller for easy viewing,” Wright said.

“The scooper originally started out as a homemade ice cream competition for non-profit organizations to make some money for their cause,” Wright said. “With changes in the health safety area, it has changed a bit.”

The Scooper Bowl costs $5 to enter and taste test the ice creams. Each person can eat as much ice cream as they want and then choose the winner of the best bowl of ice cream at the end.

Friday night, while the ice cream may not be free, all the children’s inflatables will be.

From 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday ice cream lovers are encouraged to make their way to the court square to indulge in free ice cream.

Also from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday is the I Scream Karaoke contest. Anyone who wishes to get up on stage and belt out a tune will be entered into a drawing for a year’s worth of free ice cream from Kroger Ice Cream.

For the adults, along with the free ice cream, there will also be a Top Gun Car Show Cruise-In on both Friday and Saturday.

“Model A cars from around Kentucky will gather in downtown Murray for a road course on the corner of 4th and Poplar to show off their restored Model A cars,” Wright said.

The Murray Main Street Committee are expecting more than 4,000 people to attend this year’s Murray Ice Cream Festival.

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