Kentucky Apple Festival to be held this year

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

PAINTSVILLE — COVID-19 will not rain on the Kentucky Apple Festival’s parade this year.

Officials with the Johnson County festival announced Friday that the annual event will be held this year on Oct. 1 and 2.

“We are already working hard to fulfill our promise to make this year's festival better than ever!” The Official Kentucky Apple Festival Facebook page said.

Festival organizers said they would “do everything we can to make the 2021 festival better than ever” when they announced in June 2020 that last year’s event was cancelled due to COVID-19. They said the safety and well-being of our great community” was their top priority and that the event was shuddered due to the possible spread of the coronavirus.

The Apple Festival’s cancellation last year followed an announcement in May 2020 that the Lawrence County Septemberfest in Louisa would not be held, also because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2020, organizers of Hillbilly Days in Pikeville decided to cancel the annual April event as reports of the coronavirus began to rise in Kentucky.

A scaled-down version of the Jenny Wiley Festival in Prestonsburg was held last year with coronavirus restrictions in place.

The Apple Festival began as a one-day event in 1962 and blossomed into one of the biggest festivals in Kentucky, attracting visitors from all 50 states and several foreign countries.

For information concerning an Apple Festival event, a list of committee chairmen can be found at http://kyapplefest.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2019-Apple-Festival-Event-Chairmen.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1h7VtmoIKDEsKTnndE20_kl88sSVWHMDAV0uG8V_o0fB_Q-GjD425O0jo.