Appleumpkin, Kapnick Apple Festival return Oct. 8, 9

TECUMSEH — The smell of apple cider and doughnuts is in the air again, and that can only mean one thing — Appleumpkin and the Kapnick Apple Festival are on their way.

Yes, those fun-filled fall festivals are coming back. This is the 43rd year for the Kapnick festival and the 28th year for Appleumpkin. The festivals run at the same time, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9. There will be shuttle rides between the two.

“You can park at Tecumseh High School, and the shuttle will bring you right to downtown Tecumseh and you can do the festival here and we have a separate shuttle that runs between us and Kapnick Orchards,” Jan Fox, chair of the Tecumseh Central Business Association, said.

Appleumpkin will have carnival rides, helicopter rides, inflatables and monster truck rides returning from last year. There will also be about 150 craft vendors as well as around 150 others in the categories of general vendors, nonprofits, activities, antiques and collectibles.

There will be three stages with live music performances throughout the festival. There will be 30-some individual musicians and artists that will be performing on those three stage areas.

Appleumpkin promises to have make-and-take-it tents that have free activities and crafts for the kids as well as face painters, free minigolf, a corn box and some selfie frames for those who want to snap those timeless photo treasures.

The farmers market will be running in full force. The Friends of the Tecumseh District Library is having a used book sale. St. Elizabeth Catholic Church is having its roast beef dinner on Sunday, and the American Legion is having its chicken dinner on Saturday.

Over at Kapnick Orchards, things are getting back to normal after a couple of COVID-19 years, owner Scott Robertello said.

“Everything is a go. We had our festival last year, but everything was a little bit different with the COVID still and of course we didn’t have it back in 2020. So it kind of feels like everything is getting back to the way it used to be years ago,” Robertello said.

There will be wagon rides that go out through the orchard where people can pick their own apples and to the pumpkin patch to pick their own pumpkins. The wagon rides will also go through Kapnick’s woods, which are tastefully decorated for Halloween.

There are cutouts of cartoon and movie characters. Kapnick’s has the Wizard of Oz, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Simpsons, Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet and the Minions and much, much more, Robertello said.

Festival goers can also watch workers making apple cider and they’re doing doughnut machine runs almost 24 hours a day the whole weekend.

“We have lots of nice arts and crafts and live entertainment and we have a great apple crop this year. So there will be a lot of apples for picking, and we have some beautiful pumpkins in our pumpkin patch for pumpkin picking and something for everybody," Robertello said. "That’s what we try to strive for, is a nice family event that can appeal to everybody of all ages.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Appleumpkin, Kapnick Apple Festival return Oct. 8-9