Feeling like fall: Festival kicks off in the cold
Shown are some of the nearly 900 apple dumplings ready to be consumed Saturday at the Hickory Apple Festival.
Norma and Richard McClelland of Greensboro braved the damp, chilly weather Saturday during the Hickory Apple Festival.
Skylar McConn, left, and Beverly Campbell roll dough for the popular bread baked in a brick oven Saturday during the Hickory Apple Festival.
A cold and damp start is nothing new for the organizers of the Hickory Apple Festival. Over the last 32 years, they have seen it all from bright, sunny days to hail and rain last year.
So when Gary Farner, the festival’s chairman, awoke to pouring rain, he knew he and the other volunteers would adjust and keep going. Weather never forced organizers to cancel the festival.
“We have gotten used to it,” Farner said Saturday, sitting outside the fire hall as a banjo band played inside after their performance was moved indoors because of the inclement weather. “We have to keep going. The bands want their money up front, so we just make the best of it.”
“We make adjustments,” he added. “We usually have two stages for the bands, but we just moved them inside.”
“There have been very few years where we get two, good days,” said Duane Scott, former chairman who helps his successor.
Farner said 300 to 400 people volunteer each year to make the festival a success. The festival is the biggest fundraiser for Mt. Pleasant Township Volunteer Fire Company. The festival is held at the main fire station on Route 50 in Hickory. The department has a second station in Southview.
The Apple Festival was the idea of firefighter Paul Putt of Southview after he and his wife went to different festivals. Farner and Scott said Putt, now deceased, would never believe the crowds the festival now attracts each October.
Many of the volunteers tasked with the job of making the apple pies the festival has become known for are getting older. Fonner said many of them are in their late 60s or early 70s.
“We’ve had 30 people at a time peeling apples,” Scott said.
Fonner’s wife, Kathy Fonner, coordinates all the advertising and makes arrangements for the bands that perform each year while serving as the festival’s treasurer.
“She does all the grunt work,” Farner said.
As the skies started to clear, Fonner expected to see more people getting off the shuttle buses from parking areas.
“The place will be packed tomorrow,” he predicted.
Weather was not the only problem Farner faced after it was discovered the wrong flour was delivered for the popular fresh bread baked in an outdoor brick oven. The problem was remedied by a call to their Sysco sales representative who visited the distributor’s warehouse and delivered the correct flour by 9 a.m. Saturday.
The bread-making has been a tradition for the Campbell family. Beverly Campbell and her husband, Richard Campbell, started it 25 years ago. Richard Campbell passed away earlier this year but other members of the family are still stepping up to make sure the bread baking continues.
“All of the workers in the bread booth are related in some way,” said Christie Burlina, a granddaughter of the Campbells.
Family members said people stood in line in spite of the hail and freezing rain to buy the bread last year as the booth sold out as usual.
Norma McClelland and her husband, Richard McClelland, of Greensboro, did not let the weather stop them from making the trip to Hickory. The two used to live in Washington and were neighbors of Scott.
“We thought it was supposed to quit raining,” Norma McClelland said as she sat at a picnic table with her husband just after noon. “But we are here to support the volunteer fire department.”
The festival continued at 7 a.m. today with an all-you-can eat pancake and sausage breakfast at the fire hall. There will be a church service from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. by Hickory United Presbyterian Church. The booths open at 10 a.m. with entertainment scheduled throughout the day as well as apple pie eating contests at 12:30 p.m. before the festival comes to a close at 5:30 p.m.
For more information, check the festival’s website at www.hickoryapplefest.com.