Clear skies and crisp fall weather helped bring a little over 55,000 people to the 53rd annual Georgia Apple Festival over the last two weekends.
“It takes a community to put this thing on,” said Natalie Knight, festival manager.
“It ran smoothly, and the partnerships with the local community groups do a lot of good. (For example), we tried to meet with the schools and the Boy Scouts to make sure the parking ran smoothly.”
The first weekend, Oct. 12-13, was the busiest of the two with 29,656 attending, while 26,079 attended the final weekend of Oct. 19-20, according to the Gilmer Chamber, which presents the festival alongside the Ellijay Lions Club.
This year’s total festival attendance, was very close but just a little less than last year, Knight noted.
“The first weekend was really busy, which is pretty standard,” she added. “The weather was gorgeous (both weekends), which made it a lovely time.”
Knight said this year’s festival featured a larger number of vendors, some of whom were participating for the first time.
“We added some new vendors (including) a petting zoo. We also did (live) music again with a bunch of local artists,” she added.
Some of those first-time vendors arrived at the festival after Hurricanes Helene and Milton threw their original plans off course.
“We had some vendors who were affected by the hurricanes and some vendors whose festivals were cancelled. Because of that, we tried to rearrange the field and work in ways to fit in some (vendors) who didn’t have shows to go to,” Knight said.