The 9th Annual  Homesteads Apple Festival takes place the weekend of Sept.  22 & 23 on the grounds of the Homesteads Tower Museum and Homestead Elementary School.  Located four miles south of Crossville, at the junction of Hwy. 127-S and Hwy. 68, the festival will get underway at 9 a.m. on Saturday. On Sunday, the festival gets started at noon.

Admission is $2 for visitors over the age of 6 years. Parking is free with handicap accessible spaces available.

Activities include a craft show and sale, quilt show, storytelling, free kids-zone playground, bake sale, antique tractors, and live music from the Apple Fest stage both days.  As always, there will be a variety of good food including fresh apples, fried apple pies, apple cider, hamburgers and hotdogs, BBQ, chicken, beans and cornbread, and specialty items.

The Homesteads Tower Museum will be open free of charge during the festival.  Visitors can view the displays of life in the Homesteads during the 1930s and 1940s and learn about the history of the Homesteads.  Those visitors with lots of energy are welcome to climb the 97 steps to the top of the tower for a panoramic view of the area.

The Apple Festival is hosted by the Cumberland Homesteads Tower Association (CHTA), which is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Cumberland Homesteads, a subsistence community developed during the Great Depression through a program of the New Deal.

Funds raised by the Homesteads Apple Festival support operations of the museums and educational outreach programs.  For more information, visit the CHTA website at www.cumberlandhomesteads.org.