History
The Cleveland Apple Festival began October 2002. Lewis McNeely Sr. and Dr. Larry Cockerham began discussing in 2001 a desire to have a festival event in Cleveland TN that centered on apples. After doing upstart research concerning festivals, They partnered with Chuck McSpadden, owner of Apple Valley Orchards, a local orchard. The first festival was promoted primarily by hanging posters and word of mouth and was held on the grounds of Living Word Fellowship Church. The first year obtained an attendance of about 500 people. McSpadden then recommended to McNeely to move it to a larger venue. In 2003 and 2004 the festival was relocated to the Tri-State Exhibition Center and advertising was greatly increased, which resulted in a large jump in attendance to about 2700 participants. Because of continued growth, the festival partnered with Mainstreet Cleveland to relocate the event to downtown Cleveland in 2005. The festival was also expanded to 2 days and attendance grew to almost 8000. Since that time attendance has averaged from 8 to 9 thousand participants.
In 2006 The Cleveland Apple Festival became a non profit public charity. The proceeds from ticket sales are donated to local charitable causes and organizations.
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