Downtown will not be the only place offering some autumn-themed fun for families this Saturday.

The Young Professionals of Greater Dowagiac will host its first ever “Barnyard Bash” mother-son event in conjunction with this weekend’s Under the Harvest Moon Festival, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Dowagiac Middle School, 57072 Riverside Dr. Tickets for the dance cost $5 if purchased prior to Saturday, and $10 if purchased that day or at the door.

The family-friendly event will feature a variety of activities, aimed at mothers and their sons.

The main focus of the event will be a dance, with professional DJ Jeremy Truitt, with True Entertainment, providing the music. Organizers will also offer games such as corn hole and Jenga, a coloring book station for children and photo booth for children and parents, run by Rebecca Steenbeke with Blue Print Photography.

Ausra Equipment will also park several tractors outside the middle school for children to check out.

The Barnyard Bash is a reimagining of the Young Professionals’ mommy-son event, which the local service organization debuted last May. While last year’s debut event had a superhero theme, organizers of this year’s event are focusing everything around the harvest season, Steenbeke said.

“Our slogan for the event is ‘put your best boot forward,’” Steenbeke said. “We are hoping that families come dressed like cowboys or farmers, so feel free to grab your boots, jeans and best plaid shirt.”

True to the farm theme, organizers will be decorating the middle school with hay bales, cornstalks and pumpkins.

Steenbeke, the social media chair of the Young Professionals and one of the main organizers of the event, said that the mother-son event is meant to complement the Young Professionals’ popular daddy-daughter dance, which takes place in conjunction with the city’s annual Ice Time Festival in February. While last year’s inaugural event drew a nice sized crowd of 300 people, Steenbeke said the club decided to move the event to later in the year in order to give families something else to do during the fall.

“We’ve had a lot of success tying the daddy-daughter dance with the Ice Time Festival, so we thought we would tie this event in with the fall and the Under the Harvest Moon Festival, since the community will already be out and about that day,” she said.

In addition to providing admission to the dance, families may use tickets for the Barnyard Bash to earn discounts on dinner at either Round Oak Revisited or the Wood Fire following Saturday’s event. In addition, Bakeman Barbers will offer a $3 discount on haircuts following the purchase of tickets.

To purchase tickets prior to the event, people may stop by Bakeman Barbers or The Baker’s Rhapsody, both located downtown on Front Street.

For more information about the event, people may visit the Young Professionals’ Facebook page, facebook.com/YPDowagiac.