Richard Gibson of Elyria checks out cars at the Apple Fest classic car show Sunday morning. He said he would rather have the Corvette: “They were expensive, even back then (1966), and there weren’t many to look at because of that.” The 1964 Impala on the left is owned by Bill McChesney of Avon Lake. The 1966 Corvette Sting Ray is owned by Barry Penfound of Elyria. (Photo by Chuck Humel, The Chronicle-Telegram.)
ELYRIA – Thousands took advantage of the balmy weather to enjoy all things “apple” in Ely Square downtown this weekend, organizers of the 29th annual Apple Festival said Sunday.
“It’s busier than it’s ever been,” said festival Chairwoman Linda Brown, who roughly estimated 125,000 attended the event over the weekend. “The vendors did better than last year.”
The organizers’ crowd numbers match last years, although without ticket sales the crowd figures are just estimates.
Mayor Bill Grace said the festival was great.
“It’s probably the best weather we’ve ever had,” Grace said. “People seemed to be out in record numbers. It’s a great community gathering.”
The First Place Bank antique car show and the Apple Art Awards were draws on Sunday followed by Ronald McDonald’s magic show and live entertainment.
Cars lined Broad Street in Elyria for the Apple Festival car show. (Photo by Chuck Humel, The Chronicle-Telegram.)
Fifteen-year-old Kateisha Price, a sophomore at Elyria High School, won Best of Show for her painting of a butterfly and apple.
“I feel excited and gloriously happy,” Kateisha said, adding she first became interested in art at 7 years old.
Kateisha won a $100 savings bond for her butterfly painting and another $100 savings bond for winning first place for Best Use of Color. Money for art school?
“Quite possibly,” she said, giving kudos to her art teacher, Mel Rainey. Kateisha has won a prize three years out of the seven years the art show has been going on. The festival hands out $2,400 in savings bonds to various art show winners in addition to medals and trophies.
Funding issues put a slight damper on preparations for this year’s festival since the city wasn’t financially able to provide the police, fire, sewer, water and other workers for free as they had in years past.
Brown said for the first time, the festival had to come up with $55,000 on its own. She said that won’t slow them down preparing for next year.
“We will definitely have a 30th Apple Festival,” Brown said. “No matter what we have to do, we’ll make it.”
Runners cross the ford into Cascade Park during the Apple Festival 5-K. (Photo by Chuck Humel, The Chronicle-Telegram.)
Grace said he regrets the city couldn’t provide the “in kind” personnel to help out, but said the festival was a success so “everything worked out.”
Fifteen craft booths and 93 vendors filled the blocks around Ely Square and gentle breeze kept most of the bees at bay. Families enjoyed the impressive selection of food which including kettle corn, a wide variety of apple pastries, cotton candy, gyros, funnel cakes, steak sandwiches and everything in between.
The weather wasn’t the only nice thing about the three-day event. It was virtually problem-free, Brown said.
“We were relatively free of any issues or problems,” she said. “The people have been well-behaved.”
Elyria police and fire confirmed there were no problems during the festival.
“Everything went fairly routinely,” said Police Chief Michael Medders.
“All in all, it was a wonderful event,” Brown said. “The entire city and community people — it takes everybody to pull it off.”
Art show winners
- Semag O’Sullivan, fifth grade
- Dennae Jindra, fifth grade
- Kyle Salyan, 12th grade
- Dominick Olivo, third grade
- Antonio Brown, seventh grade
- Maliyah Parilla, fifth grade
- Megan Lescher, eighth grade
- Robyn Hardwick, fourth grade
- Micayla Tarrant, eighth grade
- Jordan Stewart, seventh grade
- Madison Dicken, fourth grade
- Julie Johnson, 12th grade
- Emily Messar, eighth grade
- Kateisha Price, 10th grade
Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.
