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Premium Blend, Ithaca College’s all-female-aligned a cappella group, performs at Apple Fest. This year’s Apple Fest was one of the frst opportunities for college a cappella groups to perform off campus since the pandemic. Katelin Bradley/The Ithacan

ITHACA COMMUNITY EXPERIENCES A LITTLE SWEETNESS AS APPLE FEST RETURNS TO DOWNTOWN IN FULL SCALE

BY SARAH MARSH

Amid the busy and bustling sights and sounds of the Itha-

ca Farmers Market, vendors pour cup after cup of hot apple cider for eager patrons, steam rising from every drink. Their local, Ithaca-based farms are

busy with preparations for an upcoming town event widely anticipated by residents and visitors alike: the annual Apple Harvest Festival.

The 39th Annual Apple Harvest Festival — or Apple Fest, for short — is a long-standing tradition in Ithaca. The festival was held from noon to 6 p.m. Oct. 1 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 2 and 3 on The Commons. It was a weekend full of fresh apples and apple-based treats, food trucks, live music and artisan goods. Organized by the Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA), this year Apple Fest rounded out its fourth decade of operation. The event made a return to its traditional, large-scale format after a modifed version of the festival, Apple Festive, was presented in 2020. To comply with social distancing and COVID-19 safety policies, Apple Festive featured an open-air market and apple and cider trail but presented fewer vendors and activities.

While Apple Fest returned this year, other festivals have not been as fortunate. PorchFest, an annual music festival that highlights artists throughout Ithaca, was canceled just 40 days before its scheduled date. The organizers cited “extensive delays” in the permitting process as well as concern for the ability to follow safety

AbbyBrady/The Ithacan

Abby Brady/The Ithacan

guidelines as causes for the cancellation. Allison Graffn, marketing director for the DIA, said this year the DIA aimed to bring Apple Fest back to the strength of previous years. Graffn said Apple Fest is important to apple farmers and vendors due to the crowds that it draws and the esteem it is held to. “The whole community has had to change,” Graffn said. “It’s an optimistic sign that we can have this as a large gathering for both the farmers that are selling produce and our craft vendors.” Amara Steinkraus, co-owner of family-run Littletree Orchards, said she is all too familiar with the struggles the COVID-19 pandemic has posed for the festival. “In its incarnation, [Apple Fest] was really started to kind of bring local farms downtown, bring business downtown,” said Steinkraus, whose mother was a part of the committee that founded Apple Fest in 1985. “And I think the COVID pandemic has really been a struggle for a lot of small businesses. … My hope is that Stewart also said that she has happy memories of attending Apple Fest during her freshman year. She said that her family came up to attend the festival with her in 2019. “It was the frst community event that I ever went to in Ithaca,” Stewart said. “My family drove up to Ithaca to visit me, so we got to try all of the different foods together. Everyone in The Commons looked like they were having a great time.” The festival is a popular event for many students across campus. For this year’s freshmen and sophomore classes, however, Apple Fest was a brand-new experience. Sophomore Emma Rockey said she was nervous but eager to attend the festival for the frst time because Fall 2021 was only her second semester on campus. “I’ve never been,” Rockey said. “I’ve heard great things about it though. I’m looking forward to some fresh apples. We have apple farms at home and my family goes and gets some each year.” Amid all the excitement for the festival, Rockey said she was concerned about how a large event at full capacity would affect COVID-19 cases. “My main concern is crowds with delta variant cases rising,” Rockey said. “I worry about people traveling in for Apple Fest and spreading COVID into this community, especially when they likely won’t be wearing masks outside. Hopefully people will mask up while there.” With COVID-19 cases rising in the county, others share the same sentiment. Junior Claire Thompson said part of preparing for the fun of Apple Fest was also planning to stay safe. “I really hope people will be conscious of the health of themselves and others and be tested for COVID before and

Eleanor Kay/The Ithacan

the festival can happen without a hitch and that people are safe and responsible so that we can kind of help support all of our amazing local businesses.” Steinkraus said that she was looking forward to the return of Apple Fest to a larger capacity for the 2021 season. “We’re just really excited about being down on The Commons,” Steinkraus said. “We’ll have our doughnut machine down there. We make lots of fresh cider doughnuts and we’ll have all of our fresh cider. One thing that is special is that this time of year, we always do a limited run of our pear apple cider, which is half pear, half apple and super delicious. And a lot of people kind of wait every year for that to happen.” Similarly, the return of Apple Fest for the 2021 season was long awaited by Ithaca College students. Upperclassmen were eager to return to a fall favorite and freshmen were ready to experience an Ithaca classic for the frst time. Junior Alex Stewart said she was excited to return to the festival for the lively atmosphere and the apple slushies. “I’m defnitely looking forward to buying a ton of different food because everything there was so good,” Stewart said. “I’m also excited to just walk around the festival because it gives off good vibes.”

Samantha Hernandez of Ella’s Acres stands at her booth. Surina Belk-Gupta/The Ithacan

after attending,” Thompson said. “I would hate for Apple Fest to go down as a superspreader event. I am hopeful people will be wise and considerate and that the organizers have taken precautions. From what I remember most of it was outdoors anyway, which is a great way to keep safe and enjoy the last of the sun and warmth in Ithaca.”

News editor Elijah de Castro contributed reporting.