Lisbon hyped for Appleseed Festival

Staff report

LISBON

The 43rd annual Johnny Appleseed Festival is coming to the square in Lisbon this weekend.

Events begin at 8 a.m. Saturday with a 5 kilometer race and will continue until 11 p.m. Events will resume at 11 a.m. Sunday with a church service. The events end at 8 p.m. Sunday.

On Saturday, the Grande Parade will line up at the McKinley School starting at 10 a.m. The parade will begin at 11 a.m. and will recognize the Boy Scouts of America for 100 years of Scouting.

Cheryl Mills, who is the queen chairwoman, said this year the festival has been expanded to include queens from other communities. One reason for the change, she said, was to give the queens more opportunities to be in parades. About 10 queens from other towns will be participating, along with about five former Appleseed queens.

The Johnny Appleseed Court this year is composed of Chelsa Stoffel, Jenna Depzzo, Jenna Daggy and Kayla Potts, according to Mills.

Other events will include the Stage Left performers, the Bettie Lee Dancers and the group “Dreammakers,” who will end the day at 11 p.m.

On Sunday, the festival will start with a church service at 11:45 a.m.

Events will include the band “Hired Hands” and a biker’s cruise-in from 1 to 4 p.m. The Lisbon Community Chorus will perform from 2 to 2:45 p.m., followed by an apple-ice-cream-eating contest sponsored by the Lisbon Grange.