The northern Indiana and southwest Michigan area is known locally as "Michiana" and is home to a number of annual festivals, all of which offer various forms of entertainment, family-friendly activities, foods, and contests. All of these festivals take place over several days, allowing multiple opportunities for local individuals or visiting travelers to attend.
The Four Flags Area Apple Festival, which takes place in Niles, Michigan each year, is a four-day festival, which, according to its website, is "one of the top festivals in the state of Michigan." The festival has been an annual event since 1972 when the community got together to celebrate the apple harvest. Events at the apple festival usually include carnival rides, craft booths, contests, parades, free live entertainment, food vendors selling everything from caramel apples to apple fritters and a fireworks display.
Each year, the town of Middlebury, Indiana, hosts two festivals, one in the summer and one during the autumn months. The Summer Festival features a Little Sweethearts competition open to children ages birth to five years who live in the Middlebury school district, a large parade, various competitive races and walks, a strongman competition, and an array of craft booths, festival foods, children's activities, live entertainers and vendors.
The Fall Festival, located across several parks in downtown Middlebury, is free to attend, with free entertainment and children's activities. Also included in the Fall Festival festivities are: local craft booths, a pie-baking contest, a farmer's market, homemade foods such as ice cream and apple dumplings, and a classic car display. Most years, a fireworks display takes place at dusk during one of the evenings that the Fall Festival is scheduled.
Nappanee, Indiana, in the northern part of the state, is home to many Amish attractions, and is also the home of the annual Nappanee Apple Festival, held during the third weekend in September. As proclaimed on the Nappanee Apple Festival website, the Nappanee Apple Festival is "proud of our family-friendly atmosphere and Midwestern hospitality that attracts over 72,000 people and has become one of the largest festivals in the State of Indiana! More than 150 people from the Nappanee community volunteer to help with this festival each year and it has become a part of the Nappanee heritage." The Nappanee Apple Festival dates back to 1975 and features a seven-foot apple pie weighing approximately 600 pounds. Festivities also include live entertainment, various food vendors, a raffle, an apple pie-eating contest, a talent contest, a farm tractor and antique farm equipment show, and various apple products, including dumplings, pies, apple butter and apple bread.
