August 26, 2019
HORNELL, NY – From Mayor John Buckley:
The City of Hornell and the Hornell Partners for Growth are proud to announce the first annual Maple City Fall Festival. This event will take place September 28th on Main St and Broadway. The day will be filled with activities and entertainment for all ages.
Mayor John Buckley has thought for a long time that the City of Hornell was missing an outdoor Fall event. When he took office last year one of the ideas he had was to have an event on Main Street. He had the vision of a car show, music, food and craft vendors. The City is right on the edge of the Finger Lakes and there are a lot of possibilities for this beautiful location especially this time of year.
Not knowing that the Mayor shared her idea, HPG Chairwoman Michelle Pogue (owner of the Allstate/Michelle Cornell Hulbert Agency) had set a date and a name for the Maple City Fall Festival. It was missing a location. During the 27 years of owning her agency, she had often thought that the Maple City would be an excellent place to hold a Fall Festival. She missed the Jamborees and Hornell Carnivals of the past and wanted to highlight the local restaurant cuisine, wineries and breweries with an all inclusive event.
Sitting in a meeting about tourism, they realized that they had similar ideas. The beautiful fall foliage makes the perfect background for an event. The area is lucky to have the local produce like apples, cider, pumpkins, corn and the maple tree products the city gets its beloved name from. The fall harvest time is the perfect opportunity to celebrate where we live.
The Maple City Fall Festival is a blend of those ideas with the HPG BID Manager, Valorie Whitehill manning the large to do lists. Broadway and Main St from Seneca St to Center St will be transformed into a car show, music arena, vendor fair, carnival midway, beverage and food court. There will be a car show on Broadway with registration starting at 9 am. A pancake breakfast by the Hornell Bible Church will take place in the Art Center on Broadway to compliment the show. At Noon the craft and food vendors will open and kids activities will start. There will be an area where local restaurants “A Taste of the Valley” will have booths with some of our favorite foods. There will be a Beverage Tasting Tent for over age 21 attendees to benefit the Maple City Police Club. A storefront will house a gallery of old photos of Hornell. The live bands will also start at noon on a large stage with professional sound and lighting set up in the street between where the Christmas tree goes and City Hall. The day will open with Unoriginal Gravity, then Simply Shaded, Audibull, Tempting Scarlet and closing will be Full Scale. The event will end at 11 pm. This is going to be an event filled with something for everyone. No one will want to miss it!
We will have information on how to purchase tickets for the pancake breakfast and the beverage tasting tent soon. We are constantly adding to the activities and vendors so stay tuned for more information. If anyone would like to set up a booth (a business, organization, vendor etc), participate in the event or volunteer, please call the HPG BID Manager, Val Whitehill at 607-324-9786, send a message on facebook or email hornellpartners@gmail.com. Check hornellhpg.com and facebook for updates and later in September for a map of events.
