Sink your teeth into Harcourt’s Apple Fest

THINGS will be getting fruity this Saturday at Harcourt as the town prepares for its annual Applefest.

The day centres around the Applefest Market which will have about 80 arts, crafts, plants, produce, and food, cider, and wine stalls.

“We’ve got apples everything, we’ve got toffee apples, we’ve got apple pies, apple cakes, apple muffins, apples full stop,” said festival manager Ruth Hay.

“Apple cider, apple vinegar, it just keeps on going. You name it [anything with] apples, we’ve got it.”

The market will coincide with entertainment acts across the festival’s two stages.

The main stage will feature the Thompson Foundry Band, an official opening, an apple pie eating competition, baking contest awards, the Australian Women’s Choir, and the magician Duck Cameron.

Ms Hay said it will be the first time the award-winning magician performs at the festival.

“He’s incredible, absolutely amazing,” she said. “When my grandchild, who’s nine, heard he was going to be here, he said I’m coming, I’m coming!”

The second stage will feature a children’s storyteller, Kashmir Belly Dancers from Bendigo, and Castlemaine Secondary College choir who will be taking the slots originally for the Solomon Island Choir no longer able to attend.

The event will also have an art show, and a LEGO competition.

For something a bit more unusual, Ms Hay said Peter Hodge will be bringing some of his camels down from Shepparton to offer rides.

“It’s a big truckload of camels,” she said. “Five of them.”

The day part of the festival will run from 10am to 3.30pm and James Park, Harcourt.

The evening will feature The Dusty Springfield Story, a tribute to the late singer, led by Wendy Stapleton who also leads the Australian Women’s Choir, and backed by theatre vocalists, from 7pm to 9.30pm at the park.