Apple Festival

    The Arkansas Apple Festival in Lincoln (Washington County), is held the first weekend of October. It has been a feature of life in Northwest Arkansas since 1976. The goal of the festival is to call attention to the value of the area’s apple crop and the history behind it all. At one point in time, Arkansas’s largest apple orchard was outside Lincoln. Established traditions at the festival include live music (generally bluegrass and country); square dancing; an arts and crafts fair; and a parade that includes local organizations, politicians and elected officials, antique automobiles, tractors, and local riding clubs. Extremely popular are the free samples of apple cider and apple slices given away throughout the festival. The Apple Festival features two beauty contests: the Miss Apple Blossom and Miss Apple Harvest contests. Lincolns record for the most people in atendance at the Apple festival was set in 2008 with 70,000 people in atendance. The roots of Lincoln’s current Apple Festival reach back to the Apple Blossom Festival held in Rogers (Benton County) from 1923 to 1927. The main event was the parade of apple-themed floats, which area towns across Washington and Benton counties entered. Themed “There Is Wealth in the Apple,” Lincoln’s float won the competition in 1926. It featured a huge red-and-white apple, which was opened and closed by a boy operating a crank (J. F. Johnson) lying on his stomach hidden inside the float. Each time the apple opened, another small boy (Joe Simpleton) would throw money to the crowd along the parade route. In mid-1975, a group of nine Lincoln area residents formed to create some kind of annual celebration to highlight the town of Lincoln and what it had to offer for visitors. Framing that celebration around the area’s apple industry was an obvious decision.