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Apple Festival 2013: Festival dares to cross the street

At 67, the North Carolina Apple Festival is old enough to cross the street.

 

The most visible change at Hendersonville's biggest festival is that the festival is expanding one block north.
"The city had talked to us about the possibility of moving across the street," said Apple Festival president David Nicholson. "We didn't feel comfortable making that block part of the street festival." Pedestrians would have to cross Sixth Avenue, which remains open to traffic during the festival.
Instead of putting arts and crafts booths there, organizers will put the DMV's mobile office and the Blood Connection bloodmobile on that block.
"Anything you can do at the DMV office, you can do there," he said. "If you need to renew your driver's license, don't go stand in line on 25 North. Just come to the Apple Festival."
The mobile DMW trailer will also offer identification cards that voters can use under the state's new voter ID law.
"It's putting our toes in the water crossing that street," he said of the move to the 600 block.

What else is new at the Apple Festival? Not much. And that's what people like about it.
The street fair has a few new vendors. Bruster's Real Ice Cream has been added to the food lineup.
And there is a change to the handicapped parking because the Wells Fargo Kiddie Carnival is expanding into the Visitors Center parking lot. Handicapped parking has moved to Main Street Baptist Church, accessible from the 200 block of King Street.
Another new attraction in conjunction with the festival is the First Baptist Church Quilt & Craft Show at Crosswalk, 577 Buncombe St. The show will offer Hendersonville-made quilts and crafts for sale and feature more than 50 exhibitors.
The big new event for the fitness crowd is the first Tour d'Apple bicycle ride. The event, sponsored by the Four Seasons Rotary Club, features a 100-mile century ride, a 63-mile metric ride (100 kilometers) and a 25-mile ride. All wind over and around the apple country. The bike rides start and end at Blue Ridge Community College. (Register at active.com. Information: 828.674.8584.)
Back for another year is the Pardee Apple Festival 8-K and Chick-fil-A Mini-Moo Mile. The 8-K road race is on a certified course. Race day registration ($35) starts at 6:30 a.m. for the 8 a.m. starting gun. The fun run, starting at 8:15 a.m., costs $10.
If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, then the Apple Festival is the place to be. Civic clubs serve big hearty breakfasts at First Baptist Church starting at 7 a.m.
From the United Community Bank Farmer of the Year to kick off the festival to the King Apple Parade to close it, the Apple Festival offers no shortage of activities in celebration of ... what else ... the mighty apple.