Apple pie, apple fritters, apple cider and more can be found at the AppleJack Festival next weekend in Nebraska City.
Tammy Partsch with the Festival said while there is photographic evidence of festivities and celebrations at Nebraska City orchards that goes back over 100 years, this year will mark the 50th official year of the annual AppleJack Festival.
“Nebraska City is at a perfect area, harvest-wise, the land is just really great for growing apples and there was one point where it had the most apples growing in a certain area west of the Mississippi, except for the state of Washington, it had more orchards per capita,” Partsch said. “There was always kind of a fall harvest festival happening (and) 50 years ago some local business people said let’s capitalize on this and let’s make this an event, let’s get people here.”
Partsch said about 80,000 people attend the Festival over the weekend each year. With it being the 50th year of the festival, this year’s theme is a flashback.
“We’ve been asking (people) for over a year, ‘What are the things that you remember about AppleJack when you were a kid?’ and one of the big things was a water barrel fight,” Partsch said. “The fire department used to do it and it’s like a reverse tug-of-war. They would have an empty barrel strung from a wire, you have fire hose on either side and then you aim your hose at the barrel and whoever pushes the barrel across, that team wins.”
A water barrel fight will be held this year as a fundraiser for the NC Museum of Firefighting. Teams of four can register online and the event will be held right after the parade.
The parade this year will feature over 100 entries and about 30 high school and middle school bands from the area will be there for the marching band competition.
The parade starts at 1 p.m. Saturday, but there are many other events that day and all weekend including an apple pie eating contest, apple peeling contest, a classic car show, a fun run and a carnival.
The Applejack Festival in Nebraska City takes place Sept 21-23.
For a full list of all the things happening at the festival that weekend, click here.