The annual Fall City Apple Festival returns on Sunday, September 21, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 32925 SE 46th St. in Fall City. This marks the tenth year of the festival, which brings fun and celebration to the Fall City Community. But, more importantly, is why the festival exists.
Since 2010, the non-profit NWNHC Family Fund that produces the festival has been offering military families a powerful opportunity to heal, reconnect, and create lasting memories through its Warrior Family Retreats. The retreats are a free weekend getaway that blends equine-assisted therapy with meaningful family bonding.
The program focuses on helping families navigate the complexities of military life such as long separations, frequent moves, and the emotional impacts of deployment. Under the guidance of certified equine-assisted therapists, art-therapists and professional horsemanship instructors, couples work towards becoming more loving partners, better parents, and improving their communication skills. The children find solace in sharing their military experience with peers. Of course, there is time set aside for fun, family reconnection, and making lifetime family memories.
According to retreat participant and military mom Ashley Murray, “We’ve been involved in countless retreats, and this experience you can’t teach in a classroom. It’s a sacred moment etched in our shared memories.”
In addition to the Warrior Family Retreats, the Family Fund also provides summer camp scholarships for Valley kids whose families are struggling.
The Fall City Apple Festival is the fundraiser that makes all this happen.
This year’s festival features apple cider pressing, apple pie slices, a Kids Orchard with fun activities, live music, a hard cider tasting garden, horseback rides, a Vendor Orchard and local food trucks. Admission is free, and more than 2,000 attendees are expected to gather for a day filled with food, fun, and community spirit.
A big highlight of the festival is the annual apple pie baking contest, sponsored this year by Hauglie Insurance and Aroma Coffee Company. Adults and kids get a chance to test their apple pie recipes with a panel of local bakers, community leaders and celebrities. Ribbons, cash, and gift packages will be awarded to the top three finishers in both the adult and youth divisions. The Best In Show prize goes to the best pie in the contest. Bakers can learn more and enter at: nwnhcfamilyfund.org/apple-pie-entry
Festivalgoers can also get in their cardio exercise by helping to grind and press fresh apples into refreshing apple cider that will be for sale and savor slices of delicious apple pie from Whidbey Pies. This year’s sponsors of the Cider House include Traverso Real Estate Group and Farmhouse Market who supplies the apples. At last year’s festival, volunteers made more than 100 gallons of cider and served up more than 200 slices of apple pie!
The Cider Garden will be rockin’ and swaying with the sounds of a wide variety of local musicians, including performances by the ever-popular Laurel Canyon Legacy and Sheyenne Leonard, and introducing Gavin the Seeker. While everyone can enjoy the music, adults can also sample and enjoy a variety of hard ciders from Finnriver.
For local businesses, the festival is a unique chance to connect with families from across the Eastside and Snoqualmie Valley. More than 40 local artisans and service providers will be sharing their wares in the Vendor Orchard. Activity sponsors help bring the festival to the community and demonstrate their commitment to helping the military families who serve us and the kids in the Valley who just want to have the same experiences as their friends.
Of course, all this would not happen without the help of an army of volunteers. Students needing community service hours, Scouts, church groups, veterans, and more all pitch in to staff the many activities and lead the subcommittees that keep the festival running smoothly. Anyone who is interested in helping out, having fun, and paying it forward can sign up via the link on the Apple Festival webpage.
The Fall City Apple Festival is more than a celebration of the harvest — it’s a celebration of community. Every pie, every ride, every apple pressed helps strengthen families in the Snoqualmie Valley and beyond.
For details on volunteering, entering the Apple Pie Contest, applying as a vendor, or becoming a sponsor, visit: nwnhcfamilyfund.org/service/fall-city-apple-festival. Neighbors can also follow on Instagram, Facebook and Nextdoor.
NWNHC Family Fund is a 501(c)(3) all-volunteer nonprofit. Founded in 2010, it helps families in need experience the healing power of the horse without worrying about the costs. Through its Warrior Family Retreat program, military families find new life skills, reconnect as a family and create lifetime family memories through the healing power of the horse. The fund also provides summer camp scholarships to children whose family is struggling.
