(4/12) Adams County, Pennsylvania, will be the site of the 50th Annual Apple Blossom Festival, which will be held on Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8, 2005. The Apple Blossom Festival is held each year at the South Mountain Fairgrounds, located 10 miles northwest of historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on Route 234, near Arendtsville, PA. The fairgrounds are situated in the middle of scenic Adams County’s 20,000 acres of fruit orchards – apple, peach, and cherry trees, which are usually in full bloom during festival week. The festival gates will open each day at 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is only $5.00 for adults; children under 12 are free. There is plenty of free parking.

Highlights of this year’s festival include: live entertainment by the Carroll County Cloggers, Apple Core Band, C.B. Pickers, MakeNChanges, and Borderline. A special concert on Saturday afternoon will feature Jeff Bates with opening act Cowboy Crush. Stop by for fresh made barbecue chicken, free orchard bus tours, hundreds of arts and craft demonstrations and sales, antique tractor pulled rides and fruit agricultural exhibits. On Sunday view the presentation of the 2005 Adams County Apple Queen contestants. We will also be offering specials for ‘Mother’s Day’ on Sunday!

Children’s activities include: kiddie tractor pull, free apple pie and bobbing contests, free 4-H petting zoo, horse rides, magic shows for people of all ages, and a variety of children’s games and activities center. These activities will be offered both days.

Adams County fruit growers, who produce over seven million bushels of apples each year, would like to invite you to view, enjoy and learn about their apple industry through the free orchard tours.

Attractions, both days, promise to delight both young and old. Attractions include: a display of antique cars, antique gas hit-and-miss engines, area clogging dancers, apple bakery in a barn, Hahn’s antique cornmeal engine and hundreds of top quality crafters selling homemade crafts, plus much, much more.

The highlight of the weekend’s activities will be the judging of the Adams County Apple Queen at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday and the crowning at 2:30 p.m. A wide of variety of food products will be available for purchase including many apple products such as: fresh apples, cider, butter, candied apples, dumplings, apple crisp, cake, bread and pies. A chicken barbecue dinner will be available both days, plus homemade scrapple and country sausage, pit beef and funnel cakes.