Reid’s Orchard Apple Festival returns for 35th year

June 22, 2021 | 12:08 am

Updated June 21, 2021 | 10:45 pm

With more than 100 craft booths, 20 food booths, carnival rides and more, there’s plenty to be excited about with the return of the Reid’s Orchard Apple Festival on Oct. 16-17.

In hopes of increasing business and bringing the community together, Billy and Kathy Reid started the Apple Festival in 1986.

“We decided in the fall that we just wanted to kind of celebrate the end of the harvest of the apple season, so we thought by doing an apple festival it would be a good advertisement tool,” Billy Reid said.

It’s come a long way since then, when it was originally going to be named the Pumpkin Festival before a sudden change, and there were only 20 craft booths, eight food booths and three rides for the children.

“Even though we’ve been here 148 years we had new people come in, so we thought maybe it’d be a good way to bring out new customers who just moved in town,” Reid said. “The first year we had like 1,200 people and were just surprised, and it’s grown to about 20,000-23,000 a year.”

Now more than 35 years later, the festival has been a continued success with the help of local business and community participation.

Casey’s Rides has helped put together entertainment for the children since the beginning of the festival. It started out with just three rides, but now it has grown close to 20 with activities for all age groups.

The number of craft booths has continued to rise, leading to more and more community members demonstrating their handmade crafts each year.

To further the community ties, the Daviess County Pork Producers have been busy year after year cooking their famous pork sandwiches for citizens attending the festival.

Community organizations handle the food booths, later donating the profits they make right back to the community.

Along with these donations, the added playground to Reid’s Orchard — aptly named ‘Reidland’ and including a petting zoo and horse rides — provides even more opportunities for fundraising for nonprofit groups.

There’s something for everyone at the festival, providing a chance for togetherness among community members.

“They feel safe out here, they enjoy seeing all their friends and neighbors and they love to eat,” Reid said. “It seems like the men like the food, the ladies like the shopping and the kids like the play area.”

For Reid, 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.”

Reid said for those that are interested in attending the event to come hungry and be prepared for a good relaxing day on the farm.

“It’s just a relaxing time of the fall where you can buy craft items for your family for Christmas…” he said. “Then just to sample the different food. We have all different kinds of food here. And you’re on a farm, you can just sit back and be in a crowd or you can walk 100 feet and be away from everyone and just watch it.”

June 22, 2021 | 12:08 am

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