Lisa Mantarro Moore jokes about ordering picture perfect weather and expecting it to arrive for this weekend’s Ceres Street Faire. While weather is something out of anyone’s control, it does appear that the wishes of the chairwoman of this year’s Ceres Street Faire Committee may come true with a mixture of sun and clouds and pleasant temperatures in the 70’s.

Moore has seen various events in the past ruined by cold and wet weather for the first weekend in May but regardless of what happens, the free event goes on “rain or shine” event.

The Faire in downtown Ceres will include the staple activities Faire goers have come to expect: street vendors selling their goods, arts and crafts, commercial and information booths, food booth vendors operated by non-profit Ceres groups, local entertainment on two stages, a Saturday car show, a Sunday low rider show, and fun activities for kids to do in Whitmore Park.

The arts and crafts vendors will also appreciate nice weather.

“We have over 100 booths,” said Moore. “We are totally filled on our booth spaces. We’ve had an overwhelming amount of vendors reaching back out to us and new vendors to come in so we’re pretty excited about that.”

Corn-hole games will be set up on Fourth Street as a new addition.

The weekend event will kick off at 10 a.m. on Saturday coinciding with a classic car and pickup show on Fourth Street between Magnolia and North streets. Over 100 cars are expected this year for the Saturday exhibition, which will be over by 3 p.m. when the car show awards are announced. The Street Faire, however, continues until 6 p.m.

Car owners can sign up for entries online at ceresstreetfaire.org. Pre-registration is $25 while registration that Saturday is $35.

The Faire resumes Sunday, May 4 at 10 a.m. with a Low Rider Car Show with awards at 2 p.m. and ends at 5 p.m. instead of the traditional Sunday closing time of 4 p.m.

A full army of other service clubs and youth groups will also be selling food items along Third Street on both days. The Ceres Lions Club will be among the food vendors to barbecue their ever popular beef tri-tip sandwiches.

The entertainment line-up – the schedule appears on page A7 – includes local karate and dance groups as well as music bands.  Lavon & the Train Wreck will close out Saturday’s music acts while Sunday’s closing act will be Ceres’ own country singer Greg Scudder & Honky-Tonk Truth. Youth from Ceres Karate, Steps Dance Studio, Ceres cheerleaders will take the stage at various times.

The Ceres Street Faire Committee takes pride in making the Ceres Street Faire a free and family friendly experience. So as tradition would have it, Whitmore Park will be filled with fun things for the children during the annual Ceres Street Faire this weekend.

A petting zoo and B&B Pony Rides for the little ones will be offered at the southern end of the park.

A variety of fun activities and games will be available including:

• A petting zoo.

• Mechanical bull riding experience.

• A 15-foot-high inflatable bounce house for children, which is a great way for parents to let their children get all their wiggles out.

• Four carnival rides/attractions sponsored by Teaco Amusements.

• A giant slide presented by Teaco Amusements of Patterson. Adults and kids are welcome to climb up this giant fiberglas slide and slide down the 100 feet on a sack for smiles and laughs – and then do it again!

• A Ferris Wheel brought to Ceres by Teaco Slides.

• A Boomers attraction by Teaco.

The family will want to take in the variety of local entertainment acts offered on the Whitmore Park slab and from the new Whitmore Park gazebo which was completed in time for this weekend’s affair.

The Ceres Street Faire is known for the opportunity to shop for unusual products for people of all ages and this year there will be a healthy number of vendors lining both Magnolia, Fourth and Lawrence streets.

There will be plenty of non-profit organizations at the Street Faire selling lots of yummy food including loaded baked potatoes, tri-tip sandwiches, loaded tots, funnel cakes, snow cones, brats hamburger/cheeseburger, fruit cups, agua fresca, duro, onion rings, corn on the cob, linguica, specialty coffee, cupcakes, pastries, soft serve ice cream, kettlecorn, pretzels, lemon shakers, grilled cheese sandwiches, beans, tacos and cookies.

The Ceres Street Faire has been a Ceres tradition since 1988 when the Ceres Lions Club and Ceres Chamber of Commerce joined forces to replace the Ceres Peach Harvest Festival. The venue changed from Smyrna Park to downtown Ceres.

In preparation for the Ceres Street Faire, downtown was spruced up during last Saturday’s “Love Ceres” event.