Versailles Olde Tyme Apple Festival

Voted the best annual festival in Missouri by readers of Rural Missouri magazine and winner of the Cenex Hometown Throwdown national grand prize, the Versailles Olde Tyme Apple Festival has been drawing crowds to this central Missouri courthouse town every first weekend of October since 1980. The 2026 edition runs October 3 through October 5 in downtown Versailles, centered on the town’s Second Empire courthouse — a Victorian-era building listed on the National Register of Historic Places whose French-influenced rooflines and ornate stonework give the festival a backdrop that would cost a set designer a fortune to replicate. Attendance routinely tops 30,000 over the weekend, and the vendor footprint is one of the largest at any small-town festival in the region, with more than 300 arts, crafts, and food booths ringing the town square.

Friday Night: Where the Weekend Actually Begins

The festival proper opens Saturday, but the real momentum builds Friday evening. The Apple Pie Baking Contest accepts entries from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the County Courthouse — competition is serious, with prizes awarded for the top three finishers and bragging rights that carry through the following year. The Baby Dumplings contest (children up to age 2) and the Apple Tarts contest (toddlers) both run at First Baptist Church starting at 6:00 p.m. A Car Cruise and Sock Hop at the local drive-in draws a vintage car crowd that carries the energy of the show into the evening. The Royal Theatre hosts a special festival production on Friday evening, a tradition that changes each year and uses local actors — past productions have included full musical performances and theatrical revues.

Saturday: The Full Schedule

The 5K starts at 7:00 a.m. at Versailles High School, followed by a 2-mile walk and a half-mile kids’ fun run. The parade departs at 10:00 a.m. from Brown Road and Highway 52, featuring local high school bands, street performers, classic cars, and floats decorated around the year’s theme. After the parade, multiple live music stages activate across the downtown square. The Finley River Boys and other regional acts have anchored past years’ main stage lineups, with performances running from late morning through early evening. The Big Boy’s Toys Car Club Show at Versailles City Park awards trophies across 36 vehicle classes plus special awards for best car, best truck, best motorcycle, and oldest vehicle. The Apple Pie Auction — where baked entries go to the highest bidder at noon — is one of the most spirited events of the day. A golf tournament at Rolling Hills Country Club (junction of Highways 52 and 5) caps the weekend on Sunday with a noon shotgun start open to all skill levels.

Apples, Food, and What to Actually Eat

The Versailles Save-A-Lot Missouri Grown Fresh Apple Booth sells fruit by the bushel direct from local orchards — these are the apples you take home, not the decorative kind. Food vendors across the square offer caramel apples, apple dumplings, apple butter, apple fritters, and apple-themed baked goods in volume. For a sit-down meal, The Blue Moon Grille in downtown Versailles has been a local anchor for lakeside dining with a menu that covers steaks, burgers, and Missouri catfish — the fried catfish plate with hush puppies and coleslaw is the regional order. Fans of German cuisine should make the short drive to the Lake of the Ozarks, where Arnie’s Barn at the Lake (Osage Beach) has operated since 1998, serving schnitzel, sauerkraut, and a rotating selection of imported German beers in a setting that regulars treat as a regional institution.

Points of Interest for Families

The Morgan County Museum on Monroe Street opens for free tours during the festival, covering local history from the county’s 1833 founding through the agricultural era that shaped Versailles. For families with children interested in something beyond the festival grounds, Jacob’s Cave on nearby Gravois Mills Road is billed as the largest cave in the Lake of the Ozarks area — a half-mile of formations including massive columns, delicate soda straws, and the famous depth-illusion pools that confuse even adults. It is one of those genuinely surprising underground environments that tends to hold children’s attention better than the brochure suggests. The cave is a short drive from Versailles and makes a strong morning activity before the festival opens.

The Lake Connection

Versailles sits about 25 miles north of the Lake of the Ozarks, one of the largest man-made lakes in the United States with over 1,150 miles of shoreline. The lake’s waterfront communities — Osage Beach, Lake Ozark, and Camdenton — offer a full inventory of vacation rentals on Lake.com, from lakefront cabins with private docks to larger group homes suited for reunion-sized gatherings. Early October conditions on the Lake of the Ozarks are among the most pleasant of the year: boat traffic thins from summer peaks, the foliage begins turning on the surrounding hills, and water temperatures remain warm enough for swimming into mid-month. Search Lake.com for rentals on Lake of the Ozarks to plan a stay that pairs the festival with a proper lake weekend.