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West Valley couple preps for new fall festival in Surprise

Kunz family extends holiday joy into new City Center party

Jordan and Shanelle Kunz are taking a stab at hosting a fall festival in Surprise from Sept. 26 to Nov. 1, after the couple produced a popular Christmas lights celebration near the city for the last three years.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason Stone

Jett Kunz, 7, tosses a pumpkin up into the air while his sisters, Sienna and Brielle, watch as their parents work on setting up the Desert Fall Festival.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason Stone

Jett Kunz practices working the controls of an industrial excavator, one of 10 that attendees of the Desert Fall Festival can use as part of the admission.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason Stone

Shanelle Kunz’s dream of starting a Christmas lights festival for Surprise residents has now extended into a fall festival in the City Center near OUAZ.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason Stone

When Shanelle Kunz developed her dream of starting a Christmas fair for the growing population of the far West Valley, she was told by event professionals that the venture on a barren farm just south of the Surprise border would be a failure.

“They were like, ‘You have no power. You have no water. This land is disgusting. Good luck,” the Surprise resident said about the Desert Farms Lights festival she and her husband, Jordan, created in 2022.

“And that first year, we sold out every weekend.”

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