Members of the Gilmer Chamber and Ellijay Lions Club were pleased to see almost 27,000 converge on the Lions Club Fairgrounds for the 50th annual Georgia Apple Festival’s opening weekend Oct. 9-10.
“We made a triumphant return, with our guests enjoying a warm but beautiful fall weekend,” said Paige Hutto, Apple Festival coordinator. “Our guests seem to be enjoying an opportunity to be outside and back together.”
That feeling was shared among the festival’s vendors following a year in which the Apple Festival and many other events were canceled.
“The vendors all seemed to be very pleased with their weekends. We had many who said they had record or near record weekends,” Hutto said. “They were all happy to be back to business and enjoying festivalgoers and each other. Many vendors know each other, just as we have gotten to know them, so it felt very much like a homecoming.”
Jennifer Grimmer, Gilmer Chamber president and CEO, said 17,160 attended the festival Saturday and 9,620 Sunday for a total of 26,780 over the weekend.
“Every single vendor I spoke to said they had their best festival ever, or at least top three,” she added. “People came and lingered longer and spent a lot more than usual.”
While setting up his festival booth, Ken Barker, who sells his handmade functional clay creations as The Clogging Potter, said he and wife, Rita, came from Tallahassee, Fla. The two are regular vendors at a downtown market there, but this was their first Apple Festival.
“We do one in Taylor, Ga., and one in Destin, Fla. We were doing one in Marietta, but that one got canceled,” Rita said.
An active member of Tallahassee’s Mountain Dew Cloggers, Ken was excited when hearing that the energetic style of folk dancing had been featured at past Apple Festivals.
“If I hear that music, I might be drawn to it. Maybe they’ll let this old man get in there,” he said.
Just across the fairgrounds, Denise and Jack Nobles, of Copper Top Pottery, said they were glad to be back in Gilmer County. The couple, from Cochran, said the Apple Festival is the only event where they sell Denise’s handmade jewelry and pottery.
“We (like to) come up to the mountains, stay here and work this. Once we get set up, it’s like a vacation,” Jack said. The weekend also featured a Friday evening Apple Festival Parade through downtown Ellijay, as well as the opening of this year’s Apple Arts fest along Broad Street in downtown Ellijay.
Lisa Salman, parade and Apple Arts coordinator, said those two events were also well received.
“Apple Arts was very well attended, and the vendors were happy with the many visitors. Many vendors reported their highest sales compared to previous festivals. The parade was perfect, and (it) reminded me of a true small-town Main Street event. We’ve received many compliments,” she added.
Parade grand marshal, Fox 5’s “Good Day Atlanta” feature reporter Paul Milliken, was broadcasting live on Facebook during the entire parade, Salman noted.
The Apple Festival and Apple Arts now head into their second and final weekends Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 16-17. Apple Festival hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Apple Arts runs 9 a.m.-5 p.m. both days.
Apple Festival shuttle buses will again be picking up festivalgoers along two separate routes, Hutto noted.
The downtown route picks up from Ellijay Elementary School and Hipp Street behind First Baptist Church. The “up the hill” route picks up from various locations around the Larry Walker Educational Center (former Gilmer Middle School) and Gilmer High School.
Hutto said donations made for on-site parking at the fairgrounds go to local non-profits like the Boy Scouts, the Boys and Girls Club and school clubs or groups. Handicap parking is also available, she noted. Additional festival parking is available near the soccer fields off Progress Road, and the fairgrounds can be accessed from there by walking across the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge, Green said.