Bonnie, Clyde return to town

Downtown Pilot Point will turn back the clock again Saturday for the seventh rendition of Bonnie & Clyde Days.

The annual event includes not only the re-enactment of the bank robbery scene from the movie “Bonnie & Clyde,” but it also offers a family fun run, vendors, car and antique tractor show, an activities area designated for children (Kid Zone), pie eating contest and music. Brave Compo, the Grammy-winning band from Denton, plays from 7:30-10:30 p.m. on the Main Stage. Other musical performers will play at the event.

Events begin at 8 a.m. with the “Quick Getaway” 5K Family Fun Run. The festival closes at 5 p.m. Bonnie & Clyde Days has no admission charge, and the concert for Brave Combo also is free. The annual Soapbox Challenge will begin at 1 p.m.

“It’s that small-town festival that everyone likes to go to, and you see everybody,” said Lenette Cox, Main Street director in Pilot Point. “It’s just a lot of fun.”

She said 5,000 people are expected to attend the event, and those people are coming and going throughout the day.

“Bonnie & Clyde,” released in 1967 and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, featured a bank robbery scene shot on the square at the old Farmers and Merchants Bank. Actors playing Bonnie and Clyde in the re-enactment are Amanda Davenport, director of the Economic Development Corporation in Pilot Point, and her husband Joe Duncan.

Wayne Purser will oversee the re-enactment.

“He has the police cars, and they do shootout and re-enact the robbing of the bank,” Cox said.

Davenport said she and her husband got selected after she visited Purser at his shop last year to introduce herself and talk about the EDC.

“Wayne said they were looking for a Bonnie and Clyde, and I was a similar size of Bonnie Parker,” Davenport said. “I asked Joe if he wanted to participate and he agreed. It was pretty informal.”

Neither Davenport nor her husband has an acting background, but they are both outgoing and enjoy being involved in community activities.

Two re-enactments are planned, at noon and 3 p.m.

While Bonnie & Clyde Days has days in its title, it is just a one-day event, although it originally lasted two days.

“So now, we’ve kind of incorporated the fact that because homecoming is the day before, we do the parade here on the square as part of it,” Cox said.

The high school’s homecoming parade is Friday at 2 p.m. St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church also has its fall festival on Sunday.

Visitors may park where they can find it for Bonnie & Clyde Days, including streets surrounding downtown, Cox said.

“We have private parking for the vendors and property owners and they are given a parking pass,” Cox said. “Last year, a couple of businesses charged people to use their parking lots.”