Apple Harvest Festival - Spirits undamped by scattered light rain

No head-count yet for those curious about such statistics, but they came by the hundreds and hundreds to the Town Green, the band stand, the vendors' tents lining Main Street and the surrounding downtown area of the first day of this year's 47th Apple Harvest Festival.

Apple Pie Eating

Winners l to r. Emily Suherland, Mike Kryzanski and
Sara Gernhard

 Emily said "It was on my bucket list for 2015!" Mike said: "It was the biggest thrill of my life".  Sara said: "My fiance was to chicken sh*t to do it so I did it!"

Apple Fritter eating contestants used a variety of strategies to manage to eat a dozen fritters and finish in the gold, silver or bronze with the crowd laughing and cheering them on. 

Careful but deliberate

Even when prompted to talk about the weather there seemed to be little care or concern of the crowd other than to enjoy the excitement of the events and activities, wandering from vendor to vendor in search of some old favorite food item or a tantalizing taste of an exotic new food. 


Bed race contestants lined up for the walk to the starting point. Below Mark Fazzolari, Jack Eisenmann and John Adams, rolled the Live United Southington Community Services team with Debbie Lenzl aboard. Asked why she was doing this, Debbie lamented: "I don't know why!"

Apple Harvest Festival, general chairman Jim Champagne seemed most pleased that everyone pretty much accepted the slightly wet early autumnal weather. Asked about this Saturday evening's scheduled fireworks and the parade tomorrow, Champagne said, "Fireworks have been re-scheduled for next Saturday night, October 10th but tomorrow the parade is on. The sun is going to shine!  Everyone knows there's no change about that and they're getting ready to march at 2 pm on Sunday." Fingers crossed everyone.

Stay tuned.