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Apple Chill Festival 1972-2006
by Charly Mann
The annual Chapel Hill Apple Chill Fair was a 35 year community event that featured arts, crafts, music, and food. It was the last of a long line of annual Chapel Hill gatherings in which young and old alike bonded in a festive event. Before Apple Chill there were gatherings like the Watermelon Festival in the 1950s which was held in late spring on the UNC campus in which everyone in town got together to enjoy free slices of watermelon. Chapel Hill’s 4th of July Celebration was also much more like a fair when it was held on the Intermural Field located between Carmichael Auditorium and the Institute of Government in 1950s through the 60s.
Apple Chill took place for one weekend every April on Franklin Street. All of downtown became a glorious pedestrian mall as the streets were barracked from traffic and stalls, carts, musicians, jugglers, dancers, and clowns filled the streets. One could always enjoy a wide variety of decadent and exotic foods, and during the 1970s much of the art and crafts offered were first rate.
The first Apple Chill festival was in 1972. Apple Chill got its name by moving the “C” in “Chapel” over to “Hill” and with a few modifications become “Apple Chill”. The festival was originally called the Apple Chill Art and Music Fair, and was held not on Franklin Street, but on the adjacent McCorkle Place on the UNC campus. There was an array of great artists that year displaying their work, as well as music that included Mike Cross and legendary Chapel Hill band Arrogance. Over the years Apple Chill evolved into a real family event that offered face painting, kite-flying, balloons, and clowns for children. The arts and crafts for sale grew progressively downscale, but more affordable.
This was the most threatening scene you could encounter in the first 25 years of the Apple Chill Festival
By the early 1990s the essence of downtown Chapel Hill was starting to change. There were far fewer stores on Franklin Street that were locally owned or catered to a non-student clientele. In 1993 shortly after Apple Chill ended more than 70 shots were fired from a car on West Franklin Street that wounded two people. The festival began attracting gang members from Durham and bikers from several states. Fights during and after the Fair became common and included brawls of more than fifty people in 2003 that ended when Chapel Hill Police had to draw their guns to stop the melee. Finally after three people were shot downtown shortly after the close of the Apple Chill festival in 2006 Chapel Hill mayor Kevin Foy and the city council voted unanimously to end Apple Chill.
Chapel Hill's Police did not have to worry about bikers and gangs during most of Apple Chill's history
The Halloween Celebration is the only annual event that is still held on Franklin Street, but with the rise crime and gang related violence in the downtown area that event is attracting far fewer than the 80,000 celebrants who attended at its peak. For downtown Chapel Hill to return to its community roots it must make Franklin Street safe for its residents. There are too many empty stores, homeless panhandlers, and gang members these days. Chapel Hill is still a wonderful place with a beautiful campus and beautiful neighborhoods, but the once charming downtown where people felt safe walking around in the evening is now only a memory.
The Apple Chill Cloggers first appeared at the fair in 1975. They performed Appalachian clogging which combines traditional clogging with square dance and Scottish dancing. They thrilled the crowds with their high kicks, energy, and costumes.
Comments:
Scott
8:28 PM Wed 1/26/2011
I played bass with a guitarist/songwriter named John Santa at Apple Chill in the mid 70s. It was a blast! Thanks for reminding me of how nice the event and Chapel Hill were back in the day.
tadd
3:24 AM Wed 1/27/2010
I am really glad to have come across your site. Yous posts give food for though and make us think about really important things.
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Paul Saltzman
9:59 PM Mon 1/25/2010
A special thanks should go out to Harper Peterson. He worked (ran) the C.H. Rec Dept. and it was from his vision that Apple Chill came about. I, along with other students Phillips and CHHS were volunteers that helped bring about the first fair and the subsequent fall street fair called Ku-Karacha_Koo...."the maiden flight of the great rooster". I spent that festival in the lobby of the new NCNB building running a three projector slide show of the first Apple Chill with "Classical Gas" playing in the background. I hated to hear about the decision to end Apple Chill but it always seems that there is a boisterous minority that screws things up for the rest of us.
Susan Prothro Worley
11:19 AM Tue 1/19/2010
I second Mike Holland's comment about the safety of Chapel Hill. I have lived in Chapel Hill for 50 years and feel as safe on Franklin Street today as I did many years ago. Chapel Hill in 1960 was a magical place to grow up, as is Chapel Hill in 2010.
Charly, along with so many other people who comment here, I love your site and the memories it brings back. My family actually lived in your childhood home on Old Mill Road for one year (1960-61) when your dad was on sabbatical. My sisters and I had lots of fun on the great playground equipment in your backyard!
Charly Mann
11:46 AM Tue 1/5/2010
Thanks for the comment. I based my statement on the downtown not being safe at night on more than two dozen people I know from Chapel Hill. Many who are now in their 80s or even early 90s. I appreciate your information. I wonder how old your daughter is that you walk downtown at night. When I was growing up in Chapel Hill in the the 50s and 60s a seven or eight year old girl could walk around downtown and the campus alone in the evening (until about 9PM). (I know because both my sisters did).
I am glad to know that things are improving or that some people's fears may be exaggerated. I will say that my own daughter, who is 29, has had a couple of recent bad experiences on the main part of Franklin Street in the early afternoon on two separate Sundays with what she thinks were homeless men. She refuses to even think about going downtown alone at night.
Mike Holland
9:45 PM Mon 1/4/2010
CH is still very safe. I walk my daughter all over down town and feel safe.
Apple Chill needs to be brought back in a manner that will allow for public saftey
while preserving community spirit.
MGD
10:35 PM Fri 11/13/2009
The Dorrance's also have a son! Who would have thought pointe could or would be performed on pavement!
Larry Howell
11:09 AM Mon 10/26/2009
Your article mentions the empty stores, increase in crime and the panhandlers present in today's climate. It is a shame that "The Village" is not the same as it was when I was at UNC from 1966-1973. I remember when you could walk the streets at night at Christmas time and the streets were not crowded and you felt safe to walk. Call me a nostalgic ole' fool but this time at UNC was one of the fondest memories in my life and I do miss it so. UNC is still number one in my prejudiced viewpoint but it is just not the same. My prayer is that today's students not only get a great education as I did but also develop great memories of their own. May UNC live forever. GOOOOOO HEELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ron mayse
4:10 PM Wed 9/30/2009
Hey, Charly,
Whimsically, I gooogled your name and am glad to see you're doing well, apparently happy, and have found a fulfilling endeavor. If you're ever in Chapel Hill, let me know and we can compare notes.
Ron
Debra Holloway Galvin
10:13 AM Wed 7/29/2009
The picture of the ballerina on toe at the Apple Chill Street Fair looks like M'Liss Dorrance, owner of the long time establishment The Ballet School of Chapel Hill. My daughter attended M'Liss' ballet school for many years. M'Liss is the wife of Anson Dorrance, UNC Head Soccer coach. They have two daughters, one who dances professionally.
Cindy Clayton
9:37 AM Mon 6/8/2009
Thanks for these great memories of Chapel Hill in more innocent times.
Stephanie G.
11:46 AM Fri 6/5/2009
I moved to Chapel Hill in 2006 to attend college. I rarely go downtown in the evening even with a male friend because I don't feel safe. I have talked to people who have lived in town for decades who feel the same way as me.
Bridget Sullivan
4:24 PM Thu 6/4/2009
I left Chapel Hill in 1994. I always thought the Apple Chill Fair was one of the most defining attributes of what made Chapel Hill special. I could never imagine it ever coming to an end. I was stunned when I read this piece.
Dave Lewis
12:56 PM Thu 6/4/2009
When I grew up in Chapel Hill downtown had all the great stores, restaurants, and theaters, and you always felt safe. Now you must go to Carrboro to come close to that experiece.
Check out our other website:
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
Check out Charly Mann's other website:
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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The police officer in the picture with the kid is later to be Chief Gregg Jarvies.