September is one of the slowest months for the hotel and restaurant industries because summer is over and kids are back in school, said Inn on Church bed and breakfast and restaurant General Manager Michelle Briggs.
Except for the weekend of the Apple Festival.
“We are full,” Briggs said. “We count on the festival because the rest of the month is pretty terrible.”
Holiday Inn Express in Flat Rock has also seen a big increase in bookings for the weekend, said Assistant General Manager Bobby Parham, a welcome change since business has been a slower than usual this year.
A manager at Hampton Inn on Sugarloaf Road in Hendersonville said that despite the economy, the hotel has about the same number of reservations for this year’s festival and fills every year for Labor Day. A manager at Days Inn said they had some vacancies, but expect to be full for the weekend.
Rob Moore, general manager of Mezzaluna Pizza Company and Black Rose Public House on Main Street, calls in extra staff for the busiest weekend of the year. No special discounts or promotions are needed to draw hungry festival attendees, he said, because “you’ll have people waiting out the door.”
The formula for success is simple: “You make sure you’re staffed and you have a ton of food,” Moore said.
In the final days before the first crowds arrive for the Apple Festival, most of the action takes place in an office downtown.
Volunteers were busy Wednesday putting together more than 200 vendor packets, making signs, creating a parade lineup and handling any last-minute details.
“What we’re doing today is preparing for tomorrow — Thursday night is vendor setup,” said festival Executive Director David Nicholson. “By Friday, it’ll just look like it has been here for years.”
At 6:30 this morning, volunteers were scheduled to begin marking off and numbering vendor spaces on Main Street. Twelve hours later, food, craft and nonprofit vendors will swarm onto the scene to find and set up their spaces.
About 45 percent of the arts and crafts vendors are new this year, along with three first-time food and several nonprofit vendors, Nicholson said. The packets assembled by volunteers differ depending on the type of vendor, and include everything from city permits to recycling information.
Organizers expect the same turnout as last year despite the economy — about 225,000 people throughout the festival’s four days, Nicholson said. In 2006, the Apple Festival had an economic impact of around $15 million with attendance figures of 200,000.
“I think we’re going to do real well,” he said. “Most importantly, we want the local people to come. We do this for our local folks.”
One of the highlights of the festival is the King Apple Parade, and the lineup was being finalized Wednesday. It will be posted on the festival’s Web site, www.ncapplefestival.org, and on the gazebo on Main Street.
“I was a little concerned the middle of last week because I didn’t have many applicants for the parade,” Nicholson said. “By today, I had a boxful.”
Volunteers were also creating signs that tell people where to catch the shuttle bus from Jackson Park to Dogwood Park and letting them know there would be a $1 fee to ride this year.