BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — For the 50th time since 1974, the Apple Butter Festival is coming back to Berkeley Springs.
Jules Happy Rone is the executive director of the Berkeley Springs/Morgan County Chamber of Commerce and one of the event’s organizers. A recent guest on Panhandle Live, she says she’s been coming to the festival since she was three.
She’s not the only one.
The annual event is a homecoming of sorts for current and former residents as well as perennial visitors who have come to love taking in all that a small town has to offer in autumn.
They are coming from “All around the world, actually,” according to Happy Rone. “There are people who who literally come from other countries because this is their memory, this is their childhood. This is something that they want to experience with their family, with their loved ones.”
The festival weekend is a boon to the local economy, as tens of thousands of visitors descend on the small Morgan County town. Many community organizations hold their major fundraisers for the year as visitors multiply the town’s population exponentially every Columbus Day weekend.
Rooms are already booked up, according to Rone. “Someone called yesterday and they said we’re trying to get a motel room in Berkeley Springs. ‘Can, can you help me?’, and I said no– I really can’t. I’m sorry. Because I mean, every room in this town has been booked up for months, literally.”
“There are people coming from all over and a lot of people driving for day trips, but a lot of people coming for the whole weekend to to make a whole a whole weekend of it and enjoy themselves,” says Rone.
The Apple Butter Festival began in 1974 to celebrate the area’s apple industry and local traditions, honoring the historical practice of preserving apples as apple butter.
It started out as a smaller event but has grown to a well-known festival in the region held each Columbus Day weekend save one during the pandemic in 2020. It features more than 200 vendors, live music and quirky contests including a mustache and beard competition, which Morgan Messenger Editor Kate Shunney says prompts participants to prepare for all year long. Shunney, who grew up in Morgan County, says she started attending the festival in her younger years and has covered it as a reporter for more than two decades.
Adding to the charm of the fall event will be this year’s crisp fall air, which settled into the region late this week just in time for the event, according to Shunney.
Visitors downtown will be treated to the smell of apple butter cooking in a large kettle downtown and may even get a chance to stir the seasonal treat.
Local shops will be open and several local farms and orchards will be among the vendors with fresh and preserved bounty from their hard work over the growing season.
The festival is technically a two-day affair, but Rone says it gets a bit of an early start. “Friday night we have our kickoff party, which is just in the beer garden.”
“Saturday morning kicks off with our parade,” Rone says. “We have 74 entries as of this morning and then the festival starts at 10:00 a.m.”
“We have two stages going all weekend. We have the mainstage where you’ll see all of our headliners and you’ll see our contest. And we have just over 250 fine art, crafts and food vendors.”
As to what a small-town festival must feel to folks setting foot in Berkeley Springs this weekend, Rone says, “It it is that Hallmark movie moment. That small town festival charm.”
Organizers squeezed a tribute into the jam-packed schedule of events page that read, “For 50 years, the Apple Butter Festival has been shaped by countless hands and hearts. Built on love, laughter, and the dedication of generations, it honors those who started it, those carrying the torch today, and those who will keep it burning bright for decades to come. Some walk beside us, some only attend in spirit, but every one is part of this story. Thank you for 50 years of Apple Butter!”
