September 4-7, 2009
Historic downtown Hendersonville is the official home of the 
63rd Annual North Carolina Apple Festival, a four-day celebration in honor of the North Carolina Apple (30-minute drive from Asheville). The NC Apple Festival features a street fair on Historic Main Street including continuous live musical entertainment, arts & crafts, apple products, children’s & youth activities, special exhibits & open houses, food, and, to top it all off, the King Apple Parade. Capture the spirit of a hometown celebration that has something for the whole family, with many individual events and entertainers throughout the festival. The festival is held annually, during the Labor Day weekend.
The Apple Festival’s Street Fair covers 9 blocks of Main Street with more than 150 vendors. Main Street is closed to traffic from 6th Avenue to Caswell Street. Enjoy Pancake Breakfasts, Car Shows, Gem & Mineral Spectacular, Pardee Hospital’s 8K & Fun Run, Bike Tour, Apple Orchard Tour, Apple Recipe Contest, Burger King’s Kiddie Carnival, Wachovia’s Youth Challenge, Sidewalk Sales, Opportunity House Arts and Crafts Show, and so much more!
The King Apple Parade is one of the highlights of the N.C. Apple Festival and is held on Labor Day each year. At the parade there will be professional floats, bands, youth groups, antique cars, fire trucks and many others participating in this event that will draw over 60,000 individuals. The parade starts at 2:30 p.m.
Please leave your pets comfortably at home, Hendersonville City ordinance prohibits animals in the event area.
North Carolina is the 7th largest apple-producing state in the nation and Henderson County is the largest apple-producing county in North Carolina. The county grows 65 percent of all the apples grown in the state. If the number of apples from a normal crop grown in the county were laid abreast, they would reach from Hendersonville to Tokyo and return. Today there are approximately 200 apple growers in Henderson County. The most widely-grown apples are Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Rome Beauty and Galas. In addition, many orchards grow a number of other varieties. Fresh apples may be purchased at one of the many roadside apple markets or produce stands located throughout the county.
Directions from Asheville: Follow I-26 to Exit 49 (old Exit 18) for Hendersonville/US Highway 64 West to downtown Hendersonville, 2 miles from I-26. Turn Left onto Grove Street, then Left on 4th Avenue. Follow 4th Avenue to entrance of Jackson Park (Glover Street) and park in designated area for shuttle bus rides.
