Greatest Apple Blossom legacy? Community connection

BY JOHN DECOSTE

Kings County Advertiser

November 13, the Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival will be recognized by the Annapolis Valley Events and Sport Tourism Association with a Legacy Award.

According to current festival president Cathy Briggs and past president Sally Swanburg-Wallace, the festival’s greatest legacy is the community connection that has sustained it from its beginnings to the present day.

The festival, Briggs points out, “has knit Valley communities together for close to 80 years. “Seventy-seven consecutive festivals is quite a legacy in itself,” but ABF “is much more than that.”

She says, back in 1933, the festival was essentially “the original ‘buy local’ campaign - a showcase of product that was world-class.” At that time, “they were shipping apples to Europe as fast as they could pick them.”

The apple industry “continues to be innovative,” both in terms of the research being carried out in Kentville and the leadership of the producer-driven Nova Scotia Fruit Growers Association. “The three of us - the festival, the research sstation and the NSFGA – have enjoyed kind of a symbiotic relationship over the years,” Swanburg-Wallace says, “collectively supporting and motivating each other, raising each other’s profile and benefitting from each other.”

In building and promoting the festival, Briggs and Swanburg-Wallace have striven to blend the old with the new. “Honoring tradition while embracing change has always been our mantra,” Briggs says.

That emphasis can also be seen in this year’s festival theme, “Blossomed here, enjoyed everywhere.” “We were the first real Canadian agri-tourism program, and that’s something we continue to promote today.”

Much of the legacy of the festival is in events that have endured its entire run, most notably the choosing each year of a Queen Annapolisa. “We’ve chosen a queen every year since 1933, through World Wars, recessions and everything,” Swanburg-Wallace says. “There’s never been a year there hasn’t been a queen, and all the princesses all have a chance to showcase their communities and the Valley as a whole.”

The impact of the festival legacy is also something seen throughout the Valley - and beyond. “You can travel throughout the entire Valley, end-to-end,” Swanburg-Wallace says, “and there will always be someone who’ll stand up and say they were once a queen or a princess or have a good friend that was.”

Arguably the greatest impact of the festival is as “a showcase for the Annapolis Valley that isn’t run by or connected with any political party. It’s totally apolitical, and showcases everything that’s good about the Valley.”

Briggs and Swanburg-Wallace suggest, “we can’t think of another event of this nature founded by the local community and sustained for this long totally by volunteers. There’s no way all these people could ever be paid for all the work they do.”

Both women stress their committee “is good at what we do,” but, at the same time, “it requires such a high level of energy, we’re constantly looking for new people with new ideas and lots of energy.”

Briggs and Swanburg-Wallace are proud of their role in making the festival what it is today. “People shouldn’t take it lightly or dismiss it just because it’s local. It’s a world-renowned event, respected worldwide. The more we get involved, the more it teaches us, and the more we become ambassadors.”

Sidebar:

headline:

An economic impact assessment of the Apple Blossom Festival, prepared by Dr. Brian Van Blarcom, Acadia University, found the following: • the festival draws in the range of 100,000 patrons annually, of which 30,000 are from outside the Valley • visitors spend approximately $1.6 million: $600,000 on food and beverages, $320,000 on shopping and entertainment, $300,000 on lodging • total spending related to the festival (by Valley residents and visitors combined) is $3.6 million annually