News

McCrory to ride in King Apple parade

By Bill Moss, Published: August 31, 2014

For the second year in a row, Gov. Pat McCrory will ride in the King Apple parade at the North Carolina Apple Festival on Labor Day.

"Apples are an important agricultural product for North Carolina, and it's why we are celebrating that here in picturesque Henderson County with the King Apple Parade," McCrory said in a news release. "Hendersonville is a beautiful city with a great deal of history and scenic views."

North Carolina ranks 13th in apple production in the United States, based on 2012 data, and Henderson County is by far the largest producer of apples in the state. The state has commercial apple operations comprised of 5,000 bearing acres of apple orchards. Eight million bushels of apples can be produced in a given year.

McCrory has come to the Apple Festival three years in a row. He visited during his successful campaign for governor in 2012 and rode in the parade in 2012, his first year as governor. Until McCrory participated in the parade last year, it had been 21 years since a sitting governor came to Hendersonville for the Apple Festival, one of the biggest festivals in Western North Carolina.