The Hilton Apple Fest has won Rochester’s “Best Festival/Fair” for 2025 as part of the Rochester Community’s Choice Awards! We are so humbled and honored to be recognized amongst so many other very popular festivals in our region. Our heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone who voted for us.
The Hilton Apple Fest will be celebrating its 44th festival on October 3 & 4, 2026. Please come out and experience the long tradition of Hilton’s hometown harvest festival!
To our supporters,
We recently accomplished a wonderful feat in being named Rochester’s Community Choice Best Fair/Festival for 2025. The Apple Fest committee wanted me to share the journey we’ve been through over the past six months that led us to this success.
In August 2025, Linda received an invitation to participate in the Rochester’s Community Choice Awards. She connected with me and I did some research before presenting it to our committee. We decided to involve ourselves in the contest and I arranged for us to participate. The organization, in association with the Democrat & Chronicle, provided us with marketing resources for use leading up to the contest.
Voting was September 8th through 22nd. We were told we could potentially find out if we were in the Top 3 in the first week of October, which happened to be right when our event was happening! We reached out to all of our supporters; via email, text, Facebook, Instagram and anyway we could to encourage people to vote. Voting closed and we heard nothing. The festival came and all weekend, committee members kept spotting me and asking “have you heard yet?”. I so wish I had! Of course, October 6th, the very next day we received the email saying that we had made the Top 3!
The Community Choice organization provided us with thank you for voting graphics and tickets to their December Awards Gala. I was fortunate enough to be sent to the Gala with my husband by our Apple Fest Committee (a rare date night for a couple with an almost one year old).
The Gala was fantastic! The room was decorated beautifully with navy curtains and tablecloths. There were two photo stations; one for professional photos and the other was a more fun photo booth-style. The open bar and food were all quite enjoyable!
Our table-mates were a fun group from 3 local businesses varying from a dog spa, a property management group and a human spa. We joked that we must be losers since we were sitting so near the back of the room (little did we know). We played a game of hot potato to win the centerpiece; a light up sign saying “Community Choice: Rochester” and since I won it, you’ll see it on our Info Booth table at this year’s festival.
Miss New York presented each category, the top 3 finalists and the winner. A representative from each winning group walked across the stage and received a placeholder award. The categories moved quickly with brief pauses for Miss New York to suss out how to pronounce Irondequoit or Canandaigua. Every few categories, the DJ got everyone pumped with prizes for the rowdiest group (my husband and I did not make the cut, though we truly enjoyed watching the spectacle).
When the Best Fair/Festival came up, I was afraid I’d blink and miss it! We were listed among the prestigious Rochester festivals; the Lilac Festival and Jazz Festival. At this point in the night, our table had built a camaraderie as we shared our stories of how we came to be there. So when the Hilton Apple Fest was called we had quite the cheer squad hollering for us. I walked the stage and received our award. We received so much congratulations from our table and other groups. It turned out sitting near the back didn’t matter!
It was a wonderful night and I truly enjoyed getting to share what the Hilton Apple Fest was about throughout the voting process and again at the Gala. The biggest accomplishment, for me personally, was seeing how proud my husband was after seeing me work so hard for this organization that I so believe in.
Now, in early 2026, we’ve received our “Rochester’s Community Choice 2025 Winner” plaque and a logo to publish for everyone to see. We anticipate you’ll see us using that logo as often as we can find cause to as we celebrate our win going into our 44th Annual Hilton Apple Fest.
Thank you to everyone who supports us year after year and those who supported us during the Community Choice contest in 2025. It’s been a delight and the committee is forever grateful for your love and encouragement.
Yours truly,
Kayla Dengler, HAF Secretary
