Apple Jack Festival adapts to keep patrons safe during pandemic

The Apple Jack Festival usually draws more than 60,000 people each year. But, in a pandemic, how is the festival adjusting to keep people in those crowds safe?

Just a few weeks ago, Nebraska City Officials weren’t even sure they’d be able to have their favorite fall festival.

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But the Apple Jack Festival is back and better than ever, offering Johnny Appleseed’s favorite treat by the bushelful.

“We didn’t even know if we were going to get to this day. We’re just really happy that we can have a festival, even if it’s going to look a lot different than what it normally does,” Tammy Bartsch explained.

The biggest change? Spreading out the festival over the next few weeks rather than having it over a three-day weekend.

“How do we make it so that people come throughout the season. Apples are not ready on just one weekend either. But we’ve never been able to figure out a way to do it or maybe we’ve not been brave enough to pull the trigger. This is making us make those changes,” Bartsch said.

This will lessen crowds at places like Arbor Day Farms, which usually sees 10,000 people a day during the festival.

“We have event tents set up, trying to take the public outside as much as we can. The weather looks great, we’re trying to do what we can from social distancing in that regard,” Austin Mackrill said.

Those plans were temporarily shaken up Wednesday night when an electrical fire tore through the barbeque restaurant attached to their historic barn.

But, Arbor Day Farms isn’t missing a beat.

“So our historical barns are still going to have retail, we’re still going to have apple cider, apple donuts, our pies, we’re pivoting, we’re getting in all our new orders today from our retail suppliers, and we’re going to have our retail pop up in our historical barns this weekend,” Mackrill added.

That means the star of the show can still be front and center.

For a full list of activities and events, go to nebraskacity.com.

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