Washington County Enterprise-Leader
AR Apple Festival Called Outstanding
VENDOR BOOTHS UP FOR THE YEAR
LINCOLN — One of the oldest vendor booths at the 41st Arkansas Apple Festival sold handmade brooms and one new vendor this year sold homemade fresh apple pies and apple pie slices.
Dennis Sims with Cedar Creek Broomworks in Rudy has been coming to the Apple Festival for about 34 years and likes it because of the “small town atmosphere and lots of good people.”
Members of Hale Mountain Holi- ness Church of Morrow sold fresh apple pies and apple pie slices and they found their baked goods were a big hit at the Apple Festival.
The women set up their vendor tent near Lincoln Square community building and stayed busy all weekend long, either selling slices or baking more. This was the church’s first time to sponsor a booth at the Apple Festival and they hope to do it again next year.
Sunday afternoon, they had sold 2,200 pie slices and had baked
hundreds of pies the night before to keep up with demand.
Two members, Melissa Newman and Rachel Denny, began baking pies several years ago for the church and other functions. The women make different types of pies but for the festival, only sold apple pies to keep with the theme.
Sims, on the other hand, is a retired oilfield worker and learned how to make brooms from a man at Silver Dollar City.
He makes about 100 brooms for each festival he attends.
Another vendor, Margaret Faulkenberry of D & M Crafts in Bella Vista has been coming to Lincoln for three years. She retired about eight years ago and since then, has been traveling to craft festivals.
“The people here are so nice and friendly,” Faulkenberry said.
She sews and crochets items for the booth and her husband makes wooden toys to sell.
Rhonda Hulse, co-chairwoman for the Apple Festival, said the festival had 120 vendors this year, compared to 103 in 2015.
“Everyone seems happy, vendors and customers,” Hulse said.
For the second consecutive year, the weather was perfect for the event and helped with attendance.
“Weather makes all the difference,” Hulse said.
Last year, city officials estimated a record crowd attended the festival, due in large part to the weather. This year’s festival, if not another record, was close to it, said Mayor Rob Hulse.
“We had a great turnout,” Rob Hulse said. “The weather has been outstanding and the vendors are talking about good sales. Overa l l , it ’s been an outstanding festival.”
He expressed his appreciation to city staff and said the festival would not be possible without their work and commitment to the project.
City employees picked up trash, helped those who were peeling and slicing apples and set up tables and chairs for the festival. They stayed busy all three days.
Rhonda Hulse added, “It takes a collective effort but our city workers are what keeps it going.”
Visitors to the festival shop, eat, browse and listen to live music. School choirs performed Friday afternoon and bluegrass and country music bands entertained Saturday afternoon. Gospel music took the stage Sunday afternoon.
The three most popular booths at the festival every year have to do with — what else — apples.
Volunteers spend many hours peeling and slicing fresh apples to hand out free samples. In another booth, volunteers hand out free samples of apple cider. By the time the festival closes, volunteers usually have given out 100 bushels of apple slices and 150 gallons of apple cider samples.
Lincoln Masonic Lodge #615 purchased 95 bushels of apples and sold them at their booth over the weekend. Proceeds from the apple sales help provide college scholarships for Lincoln graduates and help with Christmas on the Square. In most years, the Lodge sells out of its apples. For the 2016 festival, the Lodge sold several apple varieties, including Arkansas Black, Red Delicious, Yellow Deli- cious, Fuji, Winesap and Jonathan.
Now that the 2016 festival is in the books, the focus will turn to next year’s festival.
Rhonda Hulse said everyone will take a break and then monthly meetings will resume in February 2017. Anyone interested in helping is invited to attend the festival meetings, held 6:30 p.m., the third Thursday of the month, at Lincoln Public Library.