Within a couple hours of the gates opening, the line of cars packed with families eager to return to the Reid’s Orchard Apple Festival stretched for nearly a mile. Once inside, familiar sights and smells — funnel cakes and roasted peanuts, carnival rides and local vendors, and all manner of apple foods and drinks — greeted an estimated 25,000 attendees.
The children’s playground was full of young ones playing on swings and slides. Older children — and adults still enjoying their inner child — filled the carnival rides provided by Casey’s Rides.
The line at every window for food was 20 or more people deep, and the steady stream of guests getting warm caramel poured on an apple sundae was twice that.
Dozens of vendors had all manner of items for sale, notably some Thanksgiving and Christmas decor for the upcoming holiday season.
It was quite a success for the 36th annual festival after having to take a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic in 2020.
Valerie Reid, event coordinator, said the festival is a tradition that’s meant a great deal to her since she was a child. For more than three decades, her family has worked together to prepare the Reid’s Orchard grounds.
“It’s just fun to have the community out, and a lot of other organizations out here,” she said previously.
Earlier this year, Billy Reid said his favorite part of the whole festival isn’t even necessarily the event itself — it’s mainly getting things prepared and seeing everyone just come out and have a good time.
“Just getting it organized and getting it set up and that Saturday morning seeing all the cars come in and all the people that come to enjoy themselves,” he said. “There’s a county fair atmosphere.”
Billy and Kathy Reid started the Apple Festival in 1986 in hopes of increasing business and bringing the community together. It’s come a long way since then — when it was originally going to be named the Pumpkin Festival and there were only 20 craft booths, eight food booths and three rides for the children.
The festival continuously grew over the years with the help of local business and community participation.
Valerie Reid said this year’s turnout was one of the biggest they’ve ever had.
While it’s a big event for the Reid family, Valerie said that the weekend is also important for the nonprofits that come each year.
“All the nonprofits have done really well, at this point it’s just like a big fundraiser for them because this has been one of the best festivals they’ve been to this year,” Reid said.
Reid said she also heard plenty of praise from the guests that came this year. She said said she heard people talk about how happy they were to be out and enjoy the weather, and be able to convene with people after having to spend so much time apart.
“Everybody has said it’s great to get out,” she said. “We’re happy to be able to host this for everyone after being cooped up for a year. It’s great to get out and start doing stuff again.”
