Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club "America's Leading Community Service Organization"

See our Special 25th Anniversary Items

 

The Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club, a non-profit rural civic organization, is busy preparing for its 25th Brushy Mountain Apple Festival to be held on the "First Saturday in October" in downtown North Wilkesboro, NC on October 5 with the "official opening ceromonies" at 9 AM. Vendors are allowed back in with their vehicles at 5 PM to pack up and move out.
It is one of the largest one-day arts and crafts festivals in the Southeast. The 29-member Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club has planned a bigger and better event to celebrate its 25th year. The Brushy Mountain Apple Festival is not just this club's largest fundraiser, but has become a one of Wilkes County's biggest fundraisers. Over 100 civic, church and other non-profit organizations participate in the festival. For many of them, the festival has become the biggest fundraiser of the year. Over 160,000 people attend this one-day festival each year.

The Brushy Mountain Apple Festival has been selected by the Southeast Tourism Society as one of the "Top 20 Events for October" for 1999 and 2000. The streets of downtown North Wilkesboro, NC will be filled with over 350 arts and crafts, 100 food concessions, 5 different music stages consisting of Blue Grass, Country, Folk, Gospel, and Appalachian Heritage. Cloggers, folk dancers, rope skippers, and square dancers will provide additional entertainment venues for festival goers. Folks will be able to enjoy seeing a belt-driven wheat threshing machine along with blacksmiths making iron creations. There will be lots of activities for the young and young at heart.

Appalachian Heritage crafts are highlighted such as woodcarving, chair making, soap making, pottery throwing, and quilting. A must to see is the horse-drawn molasses mill, watch the "hit and miss" steam engines with, and savor the smells of apple butter as it cooks on the open fire. Civil War and Revolutionary War reenactments can entertain folks while children and families take a ride on a horse-drawn wagon or pet their favorite animal in the petting zoo area. Adults and children alike will be amazed watching a state bee inspector give demonstrations while enclosed in a booth containing an active beehive.

Walking through the streets of the festival observing and buying lots of the arts and crafts, Appalachian dulcimers can be heard while the smells of the variety of foods are enticing everyone's appetites. Let us not forget the apples, apples, and apples. Local apple growers will be set up throughout the festival selling their apples, apple cider, and dried apples. After all, this festival also pays tribute to the fruit grown and harvested each fall by apple orchardists from Northwestern North Carolina.

So come join the Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club in celebrating their 25th Brushy Mountain Apple Festival this year in downtown North Wilkesboro, NC from 9 AM to 5 PM. Ann Garwood, the President of the Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club and Chairperson of the Festival will officially open the festival at 9 AM at the Brushy Mountain Ruritan Apple Festival Park located on the corner of Main Street and 10th Street.

The Grand Marshals, Joe and Lil Kokora, will be located inside the Wilkes Towers' lobby greeting festival guests, family and friends watching them sign their "Friendship Quilt." The Kokoras have lived in the Brushy Mountain Community since 1989 and became very active members in the Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club, their church and other organizations in Wilkes County. They are valued and trusted neighbors in the Brushy Mountain Community as well as Wilkes County.

The Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club Information Booth located at the intersection of Main and 9th Street will have copies of the Souvenir Program and Guide filled with schedules of music, dancing, locations of exhibitors, food concessions, apple recipes, stories and tales about the community and more. The Wilkes Art Council Juried section will be located on 9th Street.
On Friday night, October 4, the Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club will kick off the festival from 6:30 - 9 PM at the Brushy Mountain Ruritan's Apple Festival Park located on the corner of Main Street and 10th Street in downtown North Wilkesboro. There will be music presented by R. G. Absher and Extra Measures Band along with several food concessions for all to enjoy. Make sure that you bring your own chair Friday evening to enjoy the food and entertainment.
To commemorate the 25th Brushy Mountain Apple Festival, the Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club has commissioned a company to make lead crystal apple paperweights to be pre-sold ($25 each plus $7 shipping and handling)before and during the festival. There will also be a commemorative booklet containing the past covers from the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival Souvenir Program and Guide for sale as well as white caps with the Apple Festival logo on the front and 25th Anniversary, on the back.. For more information regarding these items and the festival, contact the Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club at (336) 984-3022, write at P. O. Box 129, Moravian Falls, NC 28654, visit the website at http://www.applefestival.net or go directly to The Items.

 

-- Written and submitted by Ann J. Garwood, President, Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club