The arrival of Autumn here in Connecticut means only one thing: the peak of festivals and fair season.

The end of September and the beginning of October is no exception. The Southington Apple Harvest Festival will be popping up September 28th-30th and then October 5th-7th. Shuttle buses will be loading from the Southington High school parking lot and dropping those eager for crafts or the famous apple fritters off.

As soon as you arrive, the sound of music and laughter fill your ears while the smell from the food vendors fill your nose. And this is not any old year for the Apple Harvest Fest.- it’s the 50th anniversary of it and the activities show it, but more on that later. The street is lined on both sides with vendors, both food, craft and in between mixed together. There’s something here for everyone.

For food there’s fair favorite’s like Deb’s Cafe (that sells things like deep fried Oreos, mac & cheese bites, and deep fried pickles), World’s Best Sundae (where you can get your ice cream need filled), and the Apple Crisp booth which is as on brand as you can get here. And cannot forget to mention the apple fritters. These little donuts are the main attraction here, and the (mile long?) line stretching around the sidewalk explains it all. (Pro tip, the fritter tent is open all week, so go during the week if waiting more than an hour for donuts isn’t for you!).

Besides food there’s vendors; and they’re selling all types of things.

Some booths feature homemade jewelry. Other booths feature hats and scarves. Besides that, there’s even a tent offering Henna designs.

Tents are not the only place vendors are at. Some are inside the various buildings. Those vendors have more novelty items. Those would be a raffle for a quilt, decorative plates, and baked goods.

As for activities to do, there’s a pool with inflatable hamster balls for the kids. They can get inside them and roll around in them. There are also carnival rides, and the art museum SoCCa is open to the public to walk into to view artwork in all types of mediums. There was also a mobile video game trailer- that is definitely something you don’t see at every fair.

One of the main attractions this past Saturday night was watching late 90s/early 2000s punk rock band Bowling for Soup perform. They have hits like High School Never Ends, Punk Rock 101, the Phineas and Ferb theme song, and 1985.

The show started off with Phish from River 105.9 throwing apple fritters into the crowd. After that, the band took the stage and the crowd was ecstatic. For about an hour they rocked the stage and commanded the audience. They were cracking jokes (what’s black, white, and red all over? A multicolored object) and they talked about the festival (someone in the audience had a painting a goat did). After the last note was played and the crowd dispersed, the festival put on a fireworks show. That ended the night perfectly.

If this sounds like a good time to you, you’ve got a week left to go check it out and experience it all before it’s gone.