At the Prescott City Park Playground Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jamie Hillery (with bullhorn) provides a hint to egg hunters during Saturday's Easter festivities.

By 11:00 a.m. kids and parents had already gathered under and around the pavilion at Prescott City Park. Underneath here was egg painting, cotton candy, bunny-hop races, bean bag throwing, egg and spoon races and face painting, all popular choices judging by the lines. Outside it, there were the bouncy castles and free hot dogs.

The main event, however, was the egg hunt, which took place in three waves, starting at 11:10 a.m. with the one-to-three-year-olds, who had it a little easier admittedly, as their eggs were placed on the surface of the nearby tennis courts. All sought the golden egg that would win a prized Easter basket of candies.

The next two waves, in their turn, increased the difficulty. The four-to-six-year-olds ten minutes later sought their eggs in the grass and dirt of the baseball field. The seven-to-ten-year olds had to pick them out of the more diverse landscape of the playground. Sometimes it took Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jamie Hillery offering hints through her bullhorn before the golden egg could be found.

As Hillery would say after the hunts had finished, this year’s Easter festivities were bigger and better, particularly at drawing participants. “The one thing that's made the difference for us this year has been moving it to the City Park, and I think we have had the biggest turnout we've ever had. We’ve got tons of kiddos. Everybody's kind of stayed around. Normally, when the egg hunt's over everybody gets home but as you can see nobody's leaving.”

Hillery attributed the lingering of the crowd to the work Prescott’s volunteer groups. “We invited all the civic clubs to come out, so they're doing races, Cotton candy, the Police Department’s here feeding everybody, and then we've got the high school cheerleaders painting faces too, so we just included everybody to make it a full community event.”

The pictures tell the full story.