Apple Festival: Good Family Fun

Arkansas Apple Festival officials promise to have lots of fun, food and arts and crafts for the 38th annual event. Though the festival has grown through the years, much still remains the same, such as free apple slices.

The first annual festival took place Oct. 8-10, 1976, on the downtown square in Lincoln and featured square dancing, entertainers, a parade and sliced apples. Ten years later the Arkansas Sesquicenttennial Apple Festival featured arts and crafts fair, a country western hootenanny, parade and again all the sliced apples anyone could eat.

When the festival marked 20 years, a brochure from 1986 featured a word from then-mayor, Tommy Rothrock, to those who visited Lincoln during the festival.

“Dear Visitors,” he wrote.

“The Arkansas Apple Festival typifies the spirit of cooperation that makes our state a joy to live in. It gives me special pleasure to welcome you to Lincoln for our celebration. Our festival is 11 years-old and, like the rest of Arkansas, we have great expectations for the future.

“The apple industry has been and still is an important agriculture business for this area. In the early part of this century, Washington County had more apples per acre that just about any county in the nation. We now have the largest apple orchard in Arkansas in our area.

On behalf of all the citizens of Lincoln, we hope you enjoy your visit and come back and visit with us again and again.”

Though the appl e orchards have given way to other types of farming and times have changed since 1986, the spirit of the Arkansas Apple Festival remains the same.

Thousands of visitors arrive to enjoy arts and crafts booths, which have grown in numbers through the years. Apple dumplings are a favorite of visitors and are served at the Community Center, located in the center of the square. The Lincoln Masonic Lodge has bags of apples for sale for visitors to take home. Free apple slices are still available as volunteers peel and slice apples as visitors watch. And the parade is very interesting with local bands, plenty of floats, antique vehicles, tractors and horses. (See page 1B for more information.)

It’s a festival full of delights for the entire family. Games for children, a variety of food vendors, music entertainment, art, including chain saw art and much more await visitors this year. No doubt many people will return as they do year after year and many will attend the festival for the first time.

The past two years during the festival the weather was cold with drizzle — still thousands came for the good time. This year should be a good year for attendance with weather forecasts showing mild temperatures and sunshine for the first weekend in October.

PAT HARRIS IS THE MANAGING EDITOR OF THE WASHINGTON COUNTY ENTERPRISE-LEADER.