A festival, not a fair: the Johnny Appleseed distinction

1974 or 1975 - every September since

The distinction: The Johnny Appleseed Festival is often shelved with the fairs in fair and festival directories, and this section prints the correction in so many words: it is not a fair. It has no premiums, no livestock judging, no midway and no agricultural exhibition. Its form is the period-authentic heritage festival: musicians, demonstrators and vendors dressed in early 19th century attire, offering food and goods that would have been available then, in the park that holds John Chapman's grave ground along the St. Joseph River. About 300,000 people a year attend the two-day event on the third weekend of September, with around 170 vendors, among them 41 food booths, 30 demonstrators and 100 crafters, entertainers and Civil War re-enactors. None of that makes it a fair, and the fair record loses nothing by saying so; the county fair judges a county's present work, and this festival re-enacts its past.

The founding bracket: Its first year is printed in this section as a bracket, because the sources divide. Visit Fort Wayne's history states the festival began in 1975, one of Fort Wayne's events held in preparation for the nation's Bicentennial in 1976, and the City of Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation timeline lists the first Johnny Appleseed Festival under 1975. The genealogical society's festival page notes that some sources say the festival started in 1974 and others 1975, and describes a first festival in 1974 consisting of about 20 vendors along Parnell Avenue. The idea, on the festival's own history as the society carries it, was conceived by Ladonna Huntley James and the late Phyllis Florea, co-founder and president of The Settlers, as part of the 1976 Fort Wayne Bicentennial Commission, and the park itself, 31 acres, had been named Johnny Appleseed Park in 1973. Whether the 1974 gathering counts as the first festival or as its rehearsal is carried open.

Sources:

1. Visit Fort Wayne, "Johnny Appleseed Festival: A Fort Wayne Tradition" (began in 1975 as a Bicentennial preparation; about 300,000 visitors; the vendor, demonstrator and crafter counts; the period-authentic character).
2. City of Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation, timeline 1971 to 1979 (the first Johnny Appleseed Festival listed under 1975).
3. Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana, "Johnny Appleseed Festival" (the 1974 and 1975 sources both noted; the 1974 gathering of about 20 vendors along Parnell Avenue; Huntley James and Florea and the Bicentennial Commission; the park named in 1973 and its 31 acres).