Arts And Apples!

Arts and Apples is an annual festival in Downtown Rochester every September. I usually head on down and check it out because I live one block away from the park that it is located in. I find that these craft shows turned outdoor events draw an interesting set of vendors and you never know what you are going find. 

This year, I went with a few friends and we walked around Saturday afternoon and checked out all the food and vendors. I was very impressed with how much this festival has grown over the years. It went from a few rows of booths, to the entire park being split into 2 vendor areas and 2 food areas.
 
The food selection was ok. I was surprised that they didn’t have local restaurants or food trucks supplying the eats. They had a few carts that included Greek selections, ice cream and fried treats, nachos and burritos, shoestring fries dressed in many different forms, apple cider and donuts, and your basic hot dogs and other fair foods. 

My biggest complaint is they still use the ticket system. Usually when events do this, it tricks you into buying more tickets at a reduced rate, which forces you to buy more than you wanted just to get a deal. In this case, a ticket was worth a dollar and every item was an even amount of tickets. Why do I have to stand in one line to get 7 tickets and walk to another line to use the 7 tickets to buy a Greek pita? This system is annoying and makes no sense at all, I really wish that they would get rid of this for next year because it actually detours you from getting a 2 ticket coffee. Who wants to wait in two lines for a coffee? It was very frustrating and caused us to buy less food and treats then we would have.

There were more vendors at this event than any other event I have attended all summer. We bought a few pieces of art from a vendor that makes things out of burnt cooper. I always find that these festivals are the best place to buy something for that Grandma or Mother that has everything. In this case, we got my grandma a Red Bird copper painting that we will give to her on Christmas this year. There were a few jewelry stands that caught my eye and lots of woodworkers coming up with new ideas and designs that were fun to check out. 

It was fun to walk around and see what people were making and buying. Unfortunately, some of this stuff is very pricey and it seems that they might have marked up their wares for this festival. I don’t know about you but I do not go to a fair to buy a $500 canvas picture of a dog, especially when I saw it for $200 just a few weeks ago at another festival. Vendors, don’t raise your prices just because you’re in Rochester, people are not crazy, they are not going to spend that much! 

Overall we walked around and we enjoyed ourselves. The festival is free but there is a donation to 'the arts' for $5 that is encouraged. I don’t know about you, but I do not pay $5 to go buy things. I am not sure what the thinking is there or where that money really goes. Check out some photos of our trip to the fair and consider making your way out to Rochester next year. 

~S