Festival returns with fall cheer
The Mars Applefest will return to spread fall festivities this Saturday, after a hiatus due to COVID-19 last year.
The Applefest is run by the Mars satellite of the Rich-Mar Rotary, and this year will be the second time the event has been managed by the Mars branch.
The festival will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in downtown Mars and feature crafts, food, vendors, entertainment and games.
“All of the money raised from the vendor booths will go to our Rotary club to hold events throughout the year,” said Rotary event organizer Brian Fleeson. “That's our main focus for our part of the Rotary club.”
The Rotary works with a group called Mission from Mars, which collects donations and serves lunch to people who are homeless. Mission from Mars volunteers will collect warm clothes and socks at a booth during the festival.
“That's something that people need but don't often get,” Fleeson said. “We did it in 2019, and we're hoping for an even bigger turnout this year.”
In past years, the festival has drawn an estimated 3,000 people to downtown Mars.
“It's pretty standard as far as past years,” Fleeson said. “We'll have all the vendors along Grand Avenue and Pittsburgh Street. We're really just trying to get it going again.”
The event, a longtime local staple, was canceled in 2020 due to concerns about the pandemic.
Scheduling and vendor applications for the 2021 Applefest began in April, and Fleeson said that even then there were some worries that the festival might not make it.
“We were pretty excited to do it again, but at the same time some of our group were saying we might not have it,” he said. “We went ahead with the planning process anyway, because we figured if we went so far and they told us to cancel, then that's that. But we might as well make a couple of moves on it.”
The festival will host around 150 vendors this year.
Local businesses and organizations, whether they have a direct presence at the Applefest festival or not, say that the event brings activity and joy to Mars.Ruth Geller of the Mars Lanes bowling alley said that the Applefest is the “talk of the town.”“If anybody is here, they're headed for the Applefest, and they're excited about it, and talking about what they made or what they bought,” she said. “We're all in Mars, and if you're a Mars person, you're involved, whether you're making something or running down and buying something.”Even though Mars Lanes doesn't have a stand at the event itself, Geller said that the festivities bring people to the bowling alley.“People coming through the area (to the Applefest) who go past here sometimes say, 'wow, I didn't know there was a bowling alley,'” Geller said. “People do see it, and so we're affected in our own way.“It's a very exciting day in Mars. For a small town to have such things going on and still be a small town, is amazing. People have a good time.”A revitalized eventAmy Smith of MHY Family Services said that the Rotary has “revitalized” the Applefest.“It really is an amazing way for there to be a big reunion,” she said. “People come from all over in our community and beyond. It becomes a big social event, and after the two years that we've had, holy cow do we need it!”MHY will host a table at Applefest selling candy apples, Smith said, and will share information about the behavioral health services that the organization provides.“It's a great way for not only small businesses, but nonprofits, to share their mission, what we do in our community and how we partner with the community and the Rotary,” Smith said. “When you come to the Applefest, you see it's large businesses, small businesses, church groups, nonprofits like us, mom-and-pop shops…it really covers the whole gamut of who is there.”Smith said that MHY has received a lot of calls this year asking if they are coming to the Applefest.“People are expecting us, and I think there's great excitement about it,” she said. “I think people want to get back to normal, or feel some normalcy.”
