As the leaves begin to change colors and the weather gets a little cooler, many people from Wilkes County and surround counties know of one festival that brings in a lot of people to the area. The first Saturday in October is dedicated to the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival which brings in over 100,000 people in the 9 hour span of the festival. In attendance are over 350 arts and crafts vendors, and 100 food vendors that provides crafts from goat milk soap, silverware chimes, chairs, and other handmade crafts. There is also four stages set throughout downtown Several non-profit, and civi organizations, as well as church groups were in attendance with a booth.
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| A lot of visitors enjoying the beautiful weather! |
The famous weekend is started off with an "Apple Jam" on Friday night, October 1st, located on the corner of 10th and Main Street. For those who attend, they get to listen and enjoy bluegrass, country, folk, gospel, and even Appalachian Heritage music that is reflective of the area. While that was going on, several of the vendors got a head start on setting up their space pretty late on Friday.
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| Musicians deciding on a song |
Saturday morning came with perfect weather for this event that seemed to draw in crowds from everywhere in North Carolina and surrounding states. Since the festival is named the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival, it is common to see different varieties and takes on the fruit. There were apple trucks with apples being sold out of the back of them, there were fried apple pie vendors on every corner, and there were some vendors who made apple butter infront of their customers. Throughout the festival there was demonstrations of beekeeping, wood carving, chair making, soap making, quilting, spinning & rug making, and even homemade ice cream made by a hit & miss engine.
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| A potter demonstrating his craft. |
There was music everywhere throughout the festival, some booths supported racing that was coming back to the speedway, there was jewelry being sold, raffles being held, almost everything you can imagine at local small town festival. A petting zoo, a train ride, activities for the children, and even a horse & carriage ride was offered for those who wanted something a little different than walking around, looking at vendor booths.
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| Local apple growers selling a large variety of apples. |
Every year the Wilkes Chamber of Commerce sell the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival T-Shirts, and this year the design for the shirts was so popular that we sold out of them just after noon. What a great weekend for anyone and everyone to attend a tradition festival put on by North Wilkesboro and the Brushy Mountain Ruitan Club.
