Kid-Friendly Vancouver Fun: UBC Apple Festival

The UBC Botanical Garden’s Apple Festival is a sure and delicious sign of fall. The annual UBC Apple Festival, celebrating all things apple, takes place on the grounds of the UBC Botanical Garden this weekend. It’s happening October 18-19, 2014, and it offers fun for the entire family.

The UBC Apple Festival features apple tastings, sales of apple cultivar trees and bags of apples, cider-pressing demonstrations, and a food fair where you can eat candy and caramel apples and purchase pies. The Entertainment and Children’s area features family-friendly entertainment on the Main Stage, as well as activity stations with face-painting, games, and arts and crafts. You can also bring samples from your own unidentified backyard tree to try and stump the experts from the BC Fruit Testers Association in the Apple ID program.

Kid-Friendly Vancouver Fun at the UBC Apple Festival

One of our family’s favorite activities at the UBC Apple Festival is the apple tasting tent. There are over 60 varieties of new and heritage apples to taste this year. There is an additional $5 charge, and tickets are available outside the tasting tent. Once you’ve found your delicious new favorite apple, head over to the sales area to purchase a few pounds (from the 54,000 lbs total) of the more than 70 apple varieties for sale. There are limited supplies of some heritage apple varieties, as well as quince and pears for sale. If you intend to purchase bagged apples from the Festival, my advice is to attend on the Saturday for best selection and choice.

Parking near the Garden is limited, so take advantage of the shuttles running from the large surface parking lots on campus to and from the Garden.