Spencer upholds tradition with 49th annual Apple Butter Festival

People of all ages lined Main Street in Spencer Saturday, Sept. 19, as they anxiously awaited the start of one of the few parades to take over downtown streets each year.

Excited children held bags in anticipation of candy being thrown their way. Others waited to see friends or family walk or perform as the parade rolled by.

The event was part of the Owen County community’s 49th annual Apple Butter Festival. In addition to the parade, the two-day festival sponsored by the Spencer Lions Club includes vendors for food and crafts, and even a little king and queen royalty contest.

While apple butter is the festival’s theme, and there is apple butter available as well as an apple butter contest, organizers say the main goal is to support small local businesses and get people in the community together to have a good time.

Charlotte Query, secretary of the Spencer Lions Club, said the festival was started by two men whose wives owned businesses just off the square. “People were beginning to migrate out and businesses were suffering,” she said. “So they decided they would start this festival.”

Query said there were about 10 vendors that first year, but it quickly grew the second year. As growth continued, the Lions Club took over and gave it the apple butter theme.

Apple butter was available for sale at the Lions Club’s booth on Main Street along with jams and preserves from Dillman Farm in Bloomington. Query said proceeds from those sales go to the club’s many service projects such as Dictionaries for third graders, summer food programs and scholarships.

A variety of other vendors were on hand for attendees to shop and browse. One of those was Marybeth Hines of Sparkles and Sprinkles Bakery, a gourmet cookie business she operates out of her home kitchen.

Hines participated in the festival for the first time last year and decided to come back this year.

“Last year was also my first year in business, so I was kind of just trying new things,” Hines said. “I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do exactly, but living here in Spencer, I’ve always been familiar with apple butter, and it seemed like a fun thing to be involved with.”

Hines said she appreciates how local the Apple Butter Festival is because it is put on by a community organization.

“You can’t find anyone in Spencer who doesn’t know about the Apple Butter Festival,” she said.

The festival draws people from the surrounding areas as well as locals.

Sarah Gardner, an elementary school teacher from Bloomington, sells books for a direct sales company that specializes in books for toddlers through teens. She has been a vendor at the festival in recent years and keeps coming back because she’s made good sales and likes the family-friendly atmosphere.

“I like exposing kids to books, getting them a library of books in their homes, so they are more exposed,” Gardner said. “Kids who read at home and kids who have a larger library of books at home become better readers and are better students.”

Attendees flock to the festival for a range of reasons. But Spencer resident Tab Koontz came mainly for the food and other specialty vendors.

Originally from Bloomington, Koontz said he moved to Spencer more than 30 years ago and has been coming to the festival ever since. He said it’s a great opportunity to get out of the house to meet and talk to people.

“We come back not only to grab a bite to eat, but also to see what the sellers are selling and chit-chat with the vendors and stuff, too,” Koontz said.

Julie Chandler has also attended the festival multiple times and appreciates vendors' willingness to chat and get to know people. She and her mom have made it a tradition to attend each year.

Query said the continued support of people like Koontz, Chandler and the many vendors help make it possible for the Lions Club to keep the tradition going.

“It brings people together that they haven’t seen for a year,” Query said, “and it still helps the merchants downtown.”

Stella Klaus is a student reporter with the Indiana Newsroom, a learning lab designed to give Indiana University students practical experience in community journalism and provide news coverage to areas where reliable local news is limited or nonexistent. It is funded by a grant from the Community Foundation of Bloomington & Monroe County and housed at The Media School in Bloomington.