Arbor Day Farm gears up for fall fun

NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (KOLN) - Wednesday marked the first day of meteorological fall and while it doesn’t quite feel like it, Nebraska fall favorites are already gearing up for what’s to come.

In the fall of 2020, just two days before Arbor Day Farm’s biggest event of the season, the Applejack Festival, a fire broke out inside the farm’s historic apple house.

“We did a lot of scrambling,” said Connie Van Nostrand with the Arbor Day Foundation. “We managed to have just a fabulous fall.”

The blaze did not stop the festival from happening. Now, reconstruction is underway which will restore the barn and update it with some more modern features. The project is slated to be completed by early 2022.

“Taking advantage of the situation,” Von Nostrand said. “Taking a moment to decide what does this building need to be and we have some fun stuff planned.”

September marks the start of their busy season, with the Harvest Celebration starting on Friday and Applejack Festival’s first weekend two weeks later.

Over the next month and a half, Nebraska City expects to see about 60,000 visitors.

“This year it’ll be three weekends in a row starting September 18th,” Van Nostrand said.

Van Nostrand said because of the nature of the farm, guests can continue to enjoy the fall festivities and still be pretty socially distanced.

“Relax, kind of find the space they needed to feel safe but still have a lot of fall fun and do those family traditions that they’ve always done,” Van Nostrand said.

You can purchase tickets online prior to coming to the farm and from there, guests will have about a two-hour window to check it all out.