Pumpkin spice, apple cinnamon, and love were in the air at this year’s Apple Fest in Long Grove over the weekend.
Cool, crisp weather added to the fall seasonal experience at the three-day fundraiser to help with downtown improvement costs and other projects around the village.
At Friday’s opening day of the festival, Long Grove’s historic Robert Parker Coffin Bridge was the setting for a surprise marriage proposal. She said yes as family and friends congratulated the couple and took photos.
Heather Holub and Steve Franceschini, both of Minooka, got engaged with Franceschini choosing the covered bridge for the big moment.
“We had our first date here,” Holub said, with tears still in her eyes. “And we come every year for our anniversary, and it’s our fifth (dating) anniversary today.”
Franceschini was worried while the couple browsed the shops around the village before taking a casual walk onto the renowned wooden bridge.
“I was afraid that she was going to figure it out,” he said with a smile. “I was playing stupid; I was playing dumb for the last couple of weeks.”
“On our way here, she asked if we were stopping to pick up something special, and I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ “And she’s like, ‘You know, go to, like, the jewelry store.’”
The engagement ring placed by Franceschini on Holub’s left hand brightly shone in the shade of the covered bridge. Holub’s daughter Abigail Harris, 21, of Lake Zurich, was among the smiling well-wishers, including Holub’s good friend Jackie Foreman of Grayslake, who helped to organize the fan turnout to surprise the happy couple.
“I’m extremely excited for them,” Foreman said. “She deserves it. She likes the bridge. She likes Long Grove.”
The Gingers rock band was on stage during the engagement and publicly congratulated the couple while also playing a romantic song for them to dance to. The community then joined the newly engaged couple in what continued as a public street dance.
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“Long Grove has been a place for The Gingers probably for 11 years,” Chrissie Olstad, the band’s singer and rhythm guitarist, said. “We’ve played here that many times, and it’s just always so welcoming. We just love it, and everybody’s just so friendly here.”
But Apple Fest is really mostly about apples: how you like your apples, which kind, and how apples marry with other ingredients to make culinary delights such as brown bag apple pie, caramel apples, or pork belly with candied apple jam.
For Holub and Franceschini, it is more about Long Grove’s signature apple cider sugared donuts, which they noshed on five years ago. Holub introduced the donut flavor to Franceschini, he recalled, about their first date.
Now when they visit Long Grove’s Apple Fest, “We have to have an apple cider donut,” he said.
Apple Fest 2026 included the customary busy midways and large gourd photo opportunity backdrops. Popular for pictures were huge gourds placed among hay at Farmer Paul’s Giant Pumpkins Photo-Op at Covered Bridge Park.
Visiting there were William Reidy and Dana Mazur of Lake Barrington.
“Lake County does it right,” Mazur said. “They’ve got amazing events, opportunities for families to get together. They do a really good job.”
The carnival with rides was also a highly visited amenity. Besides outside food vendors, 12 brick-and-mortar businesses served breakfast, lunch, dinner, beverages, and desserts.
Ryan Messner, the Historic Downtown Long Grove Business Association’s president, estimated that as many as 30,000 people would attend the festival.
“Long Grove creates memories to last, where families enjoy their time together and a new beginning to start,” he said.