LISBON Johnny Appleseed Festival likely won't happen this year

The festival moved to the county fairgrounds in 1999.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Long a fixture among annual community happenings, the future of the Johnny Appleseed Festival appears murky.
Organizers of the fall festival, which last year celebrated its 35th anniversary, missed a May 1 deadline to schedule use of the county fairgrounds for this year's Johnny Appleseed, Elmer Zimmerman, fair board president, said Friday.
"I guess they're not having it at our place," Zimmerman said.
He noted that the fair board contacted festival organizers in April to ensure they knew about the deadline for scheduling the late September affair.
"We never heard anything back," Zimmerman said.
Vi Palmer, who coordinates the three-day festival, refused to say whether the event will be held this year when contacted Friday.
Palmer said she wouldn't talk at work about the festival. Efforts to reach her later at home failed.
Number disconnected
The phone number for the festival's downtown office has been disconnected.
Held in the village square since it began, the Johnny Appleseed Festival moved to the county fairgrounds in 1999 after complaints from village officials that the festival's downtown location disrupted traffic and made it hard to find a parking place.
Some observers believe the move to the fairgrounds drained attendance, which in past years averaged 20,000. "I think that hurt them," Zimmerman said.
The Johnny Appleseed Festival typically includes entertainment, food vendors, the making of apple butter and apple dumplings, a five-mile road race and people portraying the famous backwoods character Johnny Appleseed.
Rumors have circulated in recent years that the festival would end.
If it does, "there will be people who will miss it," said Commissioner Jim Hoppel. "It's a tradition, and you hate to see a tradition dropped."
"It certainly will be a big loss," Commissioner Gary Williams added.
Zimmerman said the fair board already is preparing for the possibility of the festival's end. The panel is considering organizing its own fall festival, he added.
leigh@vindy.com