Revitalization of Youngsville's annual Corn Festival ended Sunday, capping a weekend of serendipitous events, from knife throwing to corn eating.
Volunteer Jeff Manelick helped organize the Taps tournament held at Island Park.
"It's a basketball type game," he said. "One team shoots from their elbows and the other team gets three attempts to rebound. They play to 21. A team gets a point for a basket and a point for a rebound."
Manelick said there were six two-member teams this year.
"It's the most we've had in the three years we've held it," he said. "We've increased by two teams each year."
Each age bracket had at least one entrant, Manelick said.
"The brackets were 14 and under, 15 to 17 and 18 and up," he said.
Manelick attributed the increase in participants to people being aware of the tournament through word of mouth.
Youngsville Fire Department EMT Joyce Strickland said she came up with the idea for the firemen obstacle course.
"This is our first year," she said. "Organizers asked us to do a fun event. This also lets the lay people know what we do."
Strickland said the obstacles included rolling up a fire hose, shooting soda cans with Indian water tanks and putting a splint on a dummy's leg.
"They have to wear helmets and gloves while they do it," she said. "We didn't have the full gear because it's hard to know sizes."
Strickland said the competitors had an average time of 4:30, which was close to what a professional could do.
The event drew eight teams of two people, Strickland said.
"I'm happy with that," she said.
Medieval re-enactor Antonio De Luna said the reenactment drew more than 400 people Saturday.
Bjorn Einarsson, another reenactor, said people came in wagon loads 20 at a time.
"The guys in full armor took turns over seven hours," he said.
De Luna said it was the first year the group participated in the Corn Festival.
"One of the festival coordinators, Ian Ashbaugh, is in our group," he said. "He requested we be in the festival."
ROY President Nancy Holmberg said the festival was going extremely well.
"I count three times more people than last year," she said. "On Friday, we were packed and nobody left. In the past, it died down, but people stayed until it closed."
Holmberg attributed the success to the willingness of community to pitch-in. "It doesn't matter if there are little glitches," she said. "Everyone comes together to fix them."