Apple Butter Festival in Berkeley Springs expands with Friday-night block party

Lauren LaRocca, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
·2 min read

Oct. 1—One of the largest and longest-running fall festivals in West Virginia, the annual Apple Butter Festival will return to Berkeley Springs on Oct. 7 and 8. An added block party night will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 6, with entertainment, food trucks, and the Apple Butter Festival beer and wine garden.

A nostalgic hometown parade with the theme Morgan County Welcomes You kicks off the festivities on Saturday morning at 9 a.m., followed by two days of games and contests, music, country food, fine arts and local crafts. The undisputed star of the festival remains the spicy apple butter being stirred in giant copper kettles in the town square, and Greenwood Community Center will take center stage in this crucial effort. Folks can help stir the kettles, experience the mouthwatering aroma and take home fresh-made apple butter.

Grand marshals for the 2023 parade are the winners of the Berkeley Springs Morgan County Chamber of Commerce Community Awards.

Guests can sample from local breweries and distributors at the Craft Beer Garden while listening to the acoustic bluegrass of All Grassed Up, who will be performing both days. Hard Target axe throwing will be new this year in the beer garden.

The Festival Food Court onsite will sell barbecue, funnel cakes, corn dogs and fried Oreos, tacos, crab cakes and Greek foods.

The musical lineup this year features new and returning favorites. Saturday's music opens with high energy bluegrass and Appalachian mountain music from West Virginia natives The Hillbilly Biscuits (formerly the Hillbilly Gypsies). Saturday afternoon will feature festival headliners The Weber Brothers.

On Sunday, the morning starts off with Hymns for Him, hymns of the church and Southern gospel music. The Flashbacks will play oldies and vintage rock 'n' roll on Sunday afternoon.

The weekend entertainment lineup also features the Berkeley Springs High School Marching Band, the Berkeley Springs High School Dance Team, Black Cat School of Rock, and the award winning powerhouse Empire Cheer.

New this year, the festival is adding a circus. Cirque Adventure is a family circus performing their interactive, country Western-themed show featuring aerial acts, a trampoline act, slack wire act, contortion, acrobatics, stilting, contact juggling, object manipulation and more.

West Virginia wines are featured vendors, along with local produce, honey, home preserves — and more apple butter. More than 200 contemporary and traditional artists and craftspeople will display and sell their work in the streets, at local shops and at the Ice House.

Admission is free.

For more information, call 304-258-3738, or go to berkeleyspringschamber.com/apple-butter-festival.