UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – The 46th annual Unicoi County Apple Festival returns to Erwin on Friday and Saturday.

Amanda Delp, executive director of the Unicoi County Chamber of Commerce, said 2023 will see the most vendors in festival history with more than 400.

“There are so many more vendors than just craft vendors,” Delp said. “Of course, we have in our craft variety. We have jewelry vendors, we have wood turners, we have folks making pottery, we have painters, photographers.”

In 2022, the Apple Festival was attended by more than 120,000 people. Delp said organizers expect to meet or exceed that number this year.

“The Unicoi County Apple Festival has a tremendous economic impact on Unicoi County,” Delp said. “In this region with the number of attendees that we have coming to the festival, it obviously is a huge economic driver for our community.”

Set-up for the festival begins Thursday night. The festival will feature live entertainment and two food courts with covered seating areas. A full list of entertainers is available on the Apple Festival website.

“The festival will be in full swing at 8 a.m.,” Delp said. “All of our vendors will be set up, activities will be going on. The cooking contest is Friday morning, so that kicks off very early on Friday morning. There’s a lot of activities that folks can take part in.”

The Apple Festival spans a five-block section of Erwin starting on Main Street and running from Second Street to Love Street. A map of the festival is also available online.