Brooktondale holds Apple Festival this weekend

On Oct. 15, the Brooktondale Apple Festival will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Brooktondale Community Center.

While Nancy Hall, chair of the Brooktondale Community Center and one of the primary organizers for the festival, said the festival organizers did not do an exact headcount of the festival attendees last year, she believes between 2,000 and 3,000 people attended, which is significantly more than the usual attendance of 1,000 people.

“It just surprised us how many people there were that came,” Hall said.

Hall attributed the increase in attendance to the decision to host the festival outside. She said this is especially because hosting outdoor events has proven safer than hosting indoor ones since the start of the pandemic.

“Being outside, they felt a little more secure,” Hall said of the people who came last year.

Thanks to that high attendance, the festival raised more money than usual — $9,000-plus up from around $7,000 most years.

“This is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and it’s a longstanding tradition,” Hall said. “It’s been going on for many, many, many years.”

According to Hall, Brooktondale has been holding the festival for anywhere from 50 to 60 years. The money pays for the Brooktondale Community Center’s building maintenance, utilities bills and other expenses and supports the center’s hosting of community groups for meetings.

Last year’s Apple Festival had a shortage of pies and apple crisps due to the short planning period and more people showing up than Hall expected. In order to accommodate greater demand for pies, the Brooktondale Community Center chose to hold more pie bees this year, in which any member of the public who wants to help make pies is welcome to attend, and intends to double the number of pies that are produced for this year’s Apple Festival.

The festival features many of the same kinds of events as last year, such as a cake wheel, local vendors, tree climbing with Adventure Trees and a silent auction. The event will have most of the same types of vendors as in the past, but relatively few individual vendors will return. Hall said she was unsure why not many of the vendors returned.

“A lot of them are very small, small vendors, small businesses,” Hall said. “Some of them … may not still be in business.”

The Easy As Pie 5-kilometer run will be held on the day of the festival at 9 a.m. Registration for the run closes at 6 p.m. Oct. 14.

The event will follow Tompkins County Health Department guidance for COVID-19-related safety precautions. Masks will not be not required, and the number of festival attendees will not be limited.

Hall said that any plans she or the Brooktondale Community Center might have for future Apple Festivals will depend on how this year’s festival fares.

“At this point, we’re just going year to year and seeing how things go,” Hall said.

Hall said she is confident that people will enjoy being outside and mingling with their friends and neighbors on a beautiful day.

“We just hope people come and enjoy their day and buy some pies and have a good time,” Hall said.

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