Experience 45 years of fun and food at the LaFayette Apple Festival
Courtesy of The LaFayette Apple Festival
The annual LaFayette Apple Festival brings in about 30,000 attendees and displays more than 400 tables for crafts, food and fun.
The LaFayette Apple Festival will celebrate 45 years of apple picking and community bonding with about 30,000 attendees starting Saturday.
The festival will be hosted at a local farm on Rowland Road in LaFayette. The festival runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Parking is free, and admission is $5 for adults and free for children under 12 years old.
The festival offers free entertainment including a bagpipe player, horse-drawn wagon rides, free cider samples, a cider mill and several other food booths. The Midway, which features rides and carnival games, will be open for the event.
The festival was founded in 1973 by David Marmon with the help of other volunteers, including Delphine Doupe. It first came about in a school’s gymnasium, and now it’s hosted on a 212-acre farm with 11 big top tents ranging from 160 feet to 220 feet.
Doupe and her husband have been involved with the festival since it first started and currently mow 100 acres of the festival grounds themselves. Doupe’s favorite part of the festival is seeing her hard work pay off, when the weather is sunny and people are outside having fun.
David Knapp is one of about 1,000 volunteers for the festival. His parents were on the original committee for the festival, and he’s been involved in the event since he was 11 years old.
The festival exclusively allows local nonprofit groups, like local high school teams, to sell food and raise money. This helps the groups raise money all at once instead of having to fundraise throughout the rest of the year.
The growth of the festival has been incredible, Knapp said. What originally started as about 50 craft tables has grown to more than 425. The festival only allows handmade crafts rather than factory-made products. The other tables include businesses selling honey, maple syrup and other locally sourced foods.
All apples sold at the festival come from local orchards. The furthest place the festival orders apples from is Oswego because the area’s selection of apples adds diversity. The festival also sells apple-themed foods such as apple fritters, fries, turnovers and cider.
“(The festival is the) last hoorah of summer and a wholesome day of family togetherness,” Doupe said.
Published on October 4, 2017 at 7:34 pm
Contact Amanda: aebyrne@syr.edu
