This year will mark a momentous edition of Brighton’s signature fall festival as Applefest celebrates its 50th year in 2024.
And the Applefest steering committee is planning to make Brighton’s biggest event of the year extra special come September – and hopes residents will help.
“As we prepare to celebrate this very special milestone – (with) more details to come – we are working on a very special project to showcase the history of Applefest, but we need your help,” said the committee, as it recently put out an online call for the community’s help.
“We are attempting to collect photos from all Applefests – from the very first festival in 1974, right up until last year’s festival in 2023,” explained committee organizers.
Collected photos will create a display to be unveiled before the festival and used to promote the event and celebrate Applefest’s 50-year history, added organizers.
Created to celebrate the bountiful local apple harvest at the height of the season, the festival lights up Main Street with local merchants offering all sorts of gems and apple-inspired goodies, and through festivities stretching across the town during the last full weekend of September.
Also considered a huge tourism draw, the fall festival brings in thousands – over the years, Applefest has rallied anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 to the community.
The committee said it is accepting all types of photos. Simply put, submissions don’t have to be professional-level photos.
To share photos, a dedicated form/webpage via the municipality’s website has been set up for the project.
Online via this page, it states photos will be collected from each year of Applefest to be displayed as banners downtown.
Residents can also keep an eye on the Brighton Applefest Facebook page for festival updates.
The committee is asking residents to spread the word about the project.
(Written by: Sarah Hyatt)
