How sweet it is: Schoharie County Maple Festival kicks off a summer of fun. (Mostly we eat.)

Hey Upstate NY, looking for a good time? Come celebrate summer with us. With fun, food & friends, it’s short but oh so sweet.

Maple Fest-goer at kettle corn food truck — Kettle corn—always a favorite Schoharie County treat, but especially at the Maple Festival.

Summer is short here, but it’s nothing if not sweet, and for 59 years, Schoharie County’s been kicking it off–that short, sweet season–with something really...sweet: The Schoharie County Maple Festival.

[Sad/mad you missed it? Put it on your 2027 calendar now. 60th Schoharie County Maple Festival–It’s always the last Saturday in April–April 24, 2027.]

What follows is a summer-long parade of festivals and events.

But the Maple Festival–where locals got to have a sweet time–part celebrating one of our oldest agricultural industries–part coming out after a long, cold winter–gets it all started.

We know how to party…

Pancakes all day. Food trucks. Crafts, library-run fun, FFA maple demos, dancing (Irish and the Hilltown Hags–IYKYK) zoo animals and farm friends, music, and more and more and more.

But mostly we eat –and everything goes better with real maple syrup: pancakes, cupcakes, relish, pickles. (OK…we shop too…) And we do it all catching up with old friends, some of whom we haven’t seen since…last year’s Maple Fest.

Happy Hags perform at Schoharie County Maple Festival — Not your everyday dancers, but we love them: thee Hilltown Hags at the Maple Festival.

No matter the weather. Sun, snow, rain…

Maple Fest President Jerry Lape’s been part of the celebration since the start. And he was still caught off-guard with this year’s crowd. “With the weather…our fingers are always crossed.”

But inside, you almost couldn’t move for trying. Outside? Packed too.

Girl drinks lemonade at Maple Festival — All summer Upstate Schoharie County celebrates with food and fun. The Maple Festival is just the start.

Cutout of alpaca — Fun and games and friends = summer here.

The Maple Festival got its start in 1967, a two-day event in Jefferson, one of the first stops here if you’re headed up from New York City. (Maybe you remember when the crowning of the Maple Queen featured some fierce competition under a tent on Jefferson’s Village Green. We do). In 1994, the Maple Fest moved to the Cobleskill Fairgrounds, where, 59 years and counting, it still celebrates the end of the maple season.

If maple syrup makes you think of Vermont, sure.

But know that New York State is #2–the second largest producer of maple products in the country; 829,000 gallons of fresh-tapped maple syrup last year, and with 2,000-plus producers, an economic impact of more than $30 million annually.

Schoharie County’s producers do their part. By the numbers: 28 farms, 27,349 taps, and thousands of gallons of maple syrup.

Because we don’t do the fake stuff here.

Whetted your appetite? Local maple products are for sale year-round on the farm, at our farmer’s markets,and festivals.

If you want to see what else we do for fun, here’s a sampling. (And check out our Root-Access Events page for a deeper dive.)