LINCOLN -- Appletown on Pridemore Drive in Lincoln will host its second annual Fall Festival, with a few features usually seen at the Arkansas Apple Festival on Lincoln Square.
The Apple Festival was canceled for 2023 as the city plans to tear down the community building on the square and construct a new one in its place. A new Apple Festival Committee already has been meeting together and making plans for the 2024 festival.
The Appletown Fall Festival will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, Oct. 6, and Saturday Oct. 7, at the store at 1862 E. Pridemore Drive. Admission is free but a fee is being collected to park across the street.
Deanna O'Brien, who owns Appletown with her husband, said she is not charging a vendor fee because she wants to provide a place for vendors to set up for the weekend.
O'Brien said more than 50 vendors have signed up for the festival. In addition to these vendors, the Fall Festival will have Partytime Ponies, a petting zoo, carnival games, baked goods, snow cones and cotton candy.
Lincoln Masonic Lodge will be on site selling apples. The lodge is a traditional vendor at the Arkansas Apple Festival and agreed to sell bags of apples at the fall festival. Other apple products at the festival will be apple dumplings, apple butter and caramel apples.
Appletown, which has about 60 vendors inside the store, will be open both days, along with a food truck in front of the building.
O'Brien said she considered whether or not to have a Fall Festival this year because she would not be getting the traffic of people going to the Apple Festival.
"But I thought if at least I can get my community to come out and support the vendors and try to keep something going on, we would do it," she said. "This kind of stuff is what keeps people coming to Lincoln."
She said she received a lot of feedback from the community who wanted her to have the festival again this year.
Deanna and Tim O'Brien bought the Appletown building with the intent to provide a place for local and area vendors but at the same time save the building so that its history would be remembered by the community.
They made repairs to the building, fixed leaks and holes, repainted and did some remodeling before a grand opening in November 2021.
They repurposed everything they could from the original building so that the store would look a lot like it did in the past.
O'Brien has said the couple wants Appletown to continue to be a tribute to the families who owned the building in the past. Lincoln was known for its apple orchards and O'Brien hopes the store will keep that history alive. For decades, customers would stop by Appletown and pick up handpicked apples and homemade apple cider to enjoy.
Lynn Kutter/Enterprise-Leader Appletown Store in Lincoln will host its second Fall Festival on Friday, Oct. 6 and Saturday, Oct. 7. More than 50 vendors will be on site outside the store, along with 60 vendors inside the store.