How to Go
What: Lebanon Country Applefest
Where: Downtown Lebanon
When: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with Middletown Symphony Orchestra performing at noon
The 30th Lebanon Country Applefest will feature more than 8,000 different apple-filled products from local fruit farms.
The annual festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday in downtown Lebanon.
“We are the longest running crafts festival in Lebanon with over two hundred booths of quality artisans and mouthwatering foods,” said festival co-organizer Jiffy Stiles.
To celebrate the anniversary of the festival, organizers are bringing in the Middletown Symphony Orchestra to perform. The symphony will perform a 90-minute concert at noon near the town train tracks on Broadway.
“We thought it would be a nice treat for all the people who visit the Country Applefest as well as the residents of Lebanon,” Stile said. In case of inclement weather, the symphony will perform at the New Freedom Church, 15 E. Warren St.
Stiles said in “perfect weather” the festival attracts approximately 50,000 people downtown.
“These aren’t just people who pop in and leave either,” Stiles said. “Everybody stays all day because there is so much to do and it’s just a lot of fun.”
Besides the symphony, the Country Applefest will have roaming entertainers like a barber shop quartet and performers like country and western singer Greg Burroughs and blues band ‘Dem Bones performing at the Mulberry Park Gazebo. Other bands performing include the youth-oriented Mason School of Rock and the Lebanon Music Academy.
The heart of the festival is apples, and there isn’t a worm to be found in this bunch.
Irons Fruit Farm sells more than 2,200 apple fritters and more than 4,300 apple donuts. The Black Barn sells 300 caramel apples. A variety of organizations sell a combined 500 apple dumplings.
“If you like apples in some form, be it a pie or a fritter or a pound cake, we’ll have it,” Stiles said. “We’re all about apples. “
Participants who think they can add something to the apple-mania are invited to enter the Applefest Bake Off. This year’s baking category is apple crisps. Entry to the contest is free and can be registered online at www.countryapplefest.com or in person at 12:30 at the Enchanted Village, 3 S. Sycamore St. The judging will take place at 2 p.m.
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