Paul Szmal: And welcome back, FLX Morning continues now at 817. We have clear skies for the moment and temperature at 55. And I'm joined by Jessica Vandemore, the marketing director from visitfingerlakes.com. Jessica, good morning. How are you this morning?
Jessica Van De Mar: Good morning, Paul. I'm doing great. How about you?
Paul Szmal: Doing well. And looking forward to some of the fall events. It feels a little weird to be saying fall events. I feel like the summer has gone by kind of quick this year. I know I was saying I go, I don't know where August came and went from. But here we are. But yeah, there's a lot of great lineups. Fall in the Finger Lakes is always such a beautiful time. And there's so many great seasonal activities that you can take part of. So even though I'm sad to say goodbye to summer, I'm excited for fall. And one of the first events that is coming up in the fall is the Sunflower Fest that is at Pick and Patch in Stanley. This is coming up September the 5th through the 7th.
Jessica Van De Mar: Yeah, and, you know, sunflowers, I feel like sometimes sunflower season to go and find a patch can be a little bit short at times. So it's great to be able to go get some great pictures with some sunflower fields. And it sort of kicks off pick and patch season also. You know, they've got a great corn maze, some pumpkin picking and other family friendly activities. So it sort of kicks off their fall season.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and pick and patch also has specialty cocktails and mocktails available at their treat trucks. So they give you a chance to enjoy an adult beverage or a fake adult beverage if you want.
Now moving on, I'm looking at what looks to be pretty intriguing. This is an event happening at Lake drum brewing on Castle Street in Geneva. It's called Drumstock Music and Arts Festival.
Jessica Van De Mar: Yeah, Drumstock Music and Arts Festival is back. I believe this is the sixth year that they're doing it and it's in at Lake drum in Geneva. And they offer a lot of different music arts local vendors. It's free to attend. So it's a great opportunity to get out, enjoy some music, enjoy local art, support local art. And as much of that's coming up September 6.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I was just just gonna say that that it was coming up on September the sixth and it's a free event. So something that you can check out, especially if you are a music fan, there's a more than a dozen live performances that are going to be a part of that.
We're talking with Jessica Vandermeer from visit finger lakes.com. And we're checking out some of the September events on the schedule, including the fourth annual Explore Victor Fest on September the 13th. This event, some people may know this event, it used to be called climb aboard Victor. So they just switched the name up a little bit added some more activities, but it's a great family fun activity to go and they usually bring out large vehicles. Some other places you'll hear it as like a touch touch a truck event. So similar to that, and the kids get an opportunity to see you know, construction vehicles, first responder vehicles. And you know, again, live music vendors right in the village of Victor.
Now we mentioned the sunflower fest at pick and patch their fall fest actually begins on September the 15th.
Jessica Van De Mar: Yep. And as mentioned, you know, fall fest, you'll see that throughout October, September, October, all of your amazing fall activities, fall flavors, but the pumpkins and the apple and again, great chance to get out family, friends, all ages to enjoy.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, they have a pumpkin pizza. That's something I have never heard of. And just hearing about it makes me want to go and try it one time just to see what it's all about.
Jessica Van De Mar: You know what, it definitely sounds like something unique because I haven't had it either.
Paul Szmal: Kicking off the Halloween season that Spirit Fest at Lincoln Hill Farms this event coming up on September the 20th.
Jessica Van De Mar: Yes, Spirit Fest is sort of a play off of getting into the Halloween spirit, but it brings in handcrafted spirits from top distilleries. So you kind of, you know, you get in the spirit with having some spirits. So it's a great kickoff. Again, Lincoln Hill will have events throughout the fall. They have a fall fest, Halloween fest that they do each year as well. So that's a great opportunity.
Paul Szmal: It looks like that's on September 20th of the year. And as we head later into the month of September, there is a fall family festival that is happening at the Dove Block Project in Geneva.
Jessica Van De Mar: Yes, and if you haven't gone out to the Dove Block Project, it's a great space and they offer different art classes throughout the year. And so they're doing a fall festival and it'll have different arts and crafts and different vendors there too. So it's a great family to be.
Paul Szmal: And toward the end of the month, one of my favorite events, and put your walking shoes on for this one, because there's a lot of ground to cover, but there's a lot to see and do. It's the annual Naples Grape Festival, September 27th through the 28th.
Jessica Van De Mar: Yeah, it's the famous grape pie, grape capital of the world. So Naples Grape Festival is back and I enjoy going to this event each year. It's a great opportunity to get outside, get into Naples and also taste the flavors. You kind of see sometimes that as maybe the winter and the fall approach, you see less outdoor festivals. So right around grape harvest season, it's a great festival to attend. Lots of vendors, live music, the Brahm beverage garden to do some wine sipping, beer sipping, if that's something you're into. And we've got more information. We have a whole page on visitfingerlakes.com dedicated to Naples Grape Festival and more information about it.
Paul Szmal: And of course, the big draw of the Naples Grape Festival is you have to go down there and get grape pie.
Jessica Van De Mar: Absolutely. And you can even participate in the grape pie competition. They have an annual grape pie competition. So you can either taste the grape pies or you can enter a grape pie. So if anybody's interested in baking pie, there you go.
Paul Szmal: And I know we're getting toward that time of year where fall foliage is going to start to appear around the Finger Lakes region. And one of the great ways to experience a look at the foliage is going to be happening with our friends at Bristol Mountain.
Jessica Van De Mar: Yes, Bristol Mountains fall sky rides are coming back again this year. And it's a great way to see the foliage down in the Bristol Hills. And you can take the ski lift, ride it up. You can ride it up and down. You can ride it up and you can walk down. And they do that on the weekend throughout the fall. And they also will end up having a fall festival as well in October. They'll just have some more vendors than they will have every weekend. But it's a great opportunity. And it'll be interesting to see the season of leaves changing. You never know based off of the weather we have if it'll be a quick season, late season. So we'll keep an eye out on that. And I Love New York always has their fall foliage tracker. So they'll start doing that next month as well.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, fall foliage season here in the Finger Lakes is pretty spectacular.
Now, the events that we have talked about, if you want to check out any of the details on anything that we've talked about, or as Jessica said, there is a completely separate page dedicated to the Naples Grape Festival. If you want to check that out, the website is visit Finger Lakes dot com. Visit Finger Lakes dot com. And by the way, if you want to get updates, you can join the newsletter, right, Jessica?
Jessica Van De Mar: Yes, we send out a monthly newsletter, and it gives information for things that are coming up, even for those that may want to take a staycation, places to stay. So certainly you can find our newsletter on our website as well.
Paul Szmal: All right, fantastic. And thank you, as always, Jessica, we appreciate having you on board.
Jessica Van De Mar: Yes, thank you, Paul. Have a wonderful day.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, you too. It is 826 on FLX morning.
