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1974-
The founding: The Johnny Appleseed Festival began in 1974, on the 200th anniversary of John Chapman's birth, with a handful of vendors, about twenty of them, concentrated along Parnell Avenue on the west side of the present grounds; the sponsors of the time were Eckrich, Lincoln Life and the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department, and the first festival was a one-day event that drew several thousand visitors. Its invention was precise: a festival for families built out of pioneer life itself, period dress, open-fire cooking, crafts and demonstrations of how people lived in Appleseed's century, set in the park that holds the marker over his traditional gravesite.
The growth: Within about twelve years the festival had grown past 138 booths, and by the early 1980s it had spread from the county side, Archer Park, into the city side, Johnny Appleseed Park with its campground, two parks under one festival. It now runs two days on the third full weekend in September with over 200 booths and, in the festival's own account, more than 200,000 visitors, its vendor rules holding the 1800s frame by invitation and inspection. For a Fort Wayne child the festival is a particular kind of entertainment that no other entry in this section offers: the past as a place you walk through with your hands, eating food cooked the slow way, watching work done the hard way, in the one weekend of the year when the city's founding century is staffed and lit.
Sources:
- Johnny Appleseed Festival, Appleseed Festival History and General Vendor Information (johnnyappleseedfest.com) (the 1974 beginning, about 20 vendors, the early sponsors, the one-day first festival, the growth to 138 and then 200 booths, the two parks, the September weekend).
- Indiana Connection, "There's an APPLE for that!", 2015 (the bicentennial framing; the festival among the largest Appleseed festivals in the country).