Naples Grape Festival

What a busy weekend! Our town is known for it's grapes and so every year we have our Naples Grape Festival This year it was held on September 27-28. This is a big fundraising for our town and helps boost our economy. To take advantage of the big crowd, our church held a bake and yard sale. Boy, my house never smelled so delicious; I baked about 6 dozen blueberry muffins and about two dozen pumpkin muffins. Other members baked dozens of banana breads, cookies, waffle cookies and brownies. If so desired, all photos can be enlarged.



Our town is quaint, quiet and charming. I took pictures of some of the buildings to give you an idea what our little town looks like. Below is the only pharmacy we have. My husband's studio is on the second floor.



Our town is into arts big time! The picture below called Artizanns houses works of various artisans. It offers original and affordable creations like pottery, wood, paintings, glass, sculptures and so much more.



Business owners still take care of their own sidewalks; below is a guy sweeping in front of his office. I conversed with him a little bit, I said, "Getting ready for tomorrow's festival?" and he answered, "yes, for a little curb appeal" lol



All over downtown, you'll see electric poles decorated like this.




This is our church bake sale display. We offered free coffee to go with our goodies.




The vendor beside our display is selling these pitchforks and spades. Aren't they creative? I bought one for my garden ... specially since he gave me a $5 discount! Notice the fire hydrant... all of our fire hydrants are painted ... you guessed it, purple! lol




Pictures of some of the entertainment. There was also live music, in fact our son's band called Funk Uncle played in front of their school, raising funds for their Robotics team where he is a member.



View of the busy street. Our festival is always very well attended, bumper to bumper traffic. About two years ago, the Food TV Network filmed our festival and it was aired on TV several times.



The festival includes juried arts and crafts displays from artisans who live around our region. There were all kinds of jewelry ... glass, sculptures, inspirationals etc.



The lady creating these delicate egg shells is just amazing. Look at the delicate designs. She said it takes her about 6 hours to complete a regular size egg. She also has a brooch made of an ostrich egg shell. I was tempted to buy one but they are too much for my budget.



These paintings are very good! He uses mixed media, clay and acrylic to make his works look dimensional.




Kettle popcorn! Hmmm ... smells so good!




And of course, there is always the World's Greatest Grape Pie contest it was the highlight of our festival. One of these days, I will attempt to enter the grape pie contest. lol
There are a lot of grape pie stands on almost every corner of our town, but my favorite is Monica's Pies. My daughter's first job was at Monica's.
And so my dear friends, you have it! Have a grape day!