Get ready for a groovy Apple Blossom Parade and Festival on April 26-27
Enjoy the sights and sounds of the '60s all over again
It looks like Sebastopol’s 2025 “Flower Power” Apple Blossom Festival and Parade will have so many vintage VW cars and buses and tie-dye, blue jeans and psychedelia art that some of the local ex-hippies might have flashbacks.
Even the live music for the two-day festival will echo with sounds from the 1960s, with tribute bands to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Grateful Dead, The Who and Jimi Hendrix scheduled to play on Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27, in Sebastopol’s Ives Park. There will be a “60s Sing-a-Long” and the original Big Brother and the Holding Company will play midday on Sunday.
The 79th annual hometown festival kicks off on Saturday at 10 a.m. down Main Street. Near the front of the lineup will be this year’s Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year, Linda Pellascini, who founded the Apple Blossom Parade in 1968 along with her husband Richard.
Also at the front of the parade this year will be the local tea company, Traditional Medicinals, celebrating its 50th year in business. Following will be a large entourage of members of the Rotary Club of Sebastopol that is marking its 100th (centennial) year in 2025. Other parade entries include a vintage VW fire truck and an ambulance, plus more 1960s and long hair “peace and love” nostalgia.
The Analy High School marching band will debut new uniforms, and several other West County schools will be represented by their marching units. The annual parade stretches down Main Street for almost two hours every year, culminating with an impromptu shower from a local fire truck hose.
Parade participants gather to line up at Analy High School beginning early in the morning, and the city sets up downtown detour barriers along the parade route an hour before the military Honor Guard starts the parade down Main Street at High School Road.
The Apple Blossom Festival is put together each year by the small staff and large army of volunteers at the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce. It is the nonprofit’s largest fundraiser of the year.
“We’re 114 years old,” said Chamber Executive Director Myriah Volk. “Obviously we’ve been through lots of changes in membership and leadership over all those years, but right now we have more active business members than we’ve had for many years. It helps us put together a festival with lots of new things and attractions for more people.”
The official Apple Blossom “Flower Power” poster and T-shirt art were created by Analy High School students. And for the first time this year, an Apple Blossom band poster was created by Sebastopol resident Stanley Mouse, who became famous in the 1960s for his psychedelic concert posters for The Grateful Dead and other San Francisco music groups and concerts.
Following the Saturday morning parade, the Ives Park festival grounds are open on Saturday from 12 noon to 6 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $15 at the gate ($12 online presale), and children under age five are free. (Seniors and students get a $2 discount.)
A few of the festival additions include an expanded selection of arts, crafts and food booths, said Volk.
No festivalgoers will go home hungry or thirsty. Besides local microbrews and wines, individual food trucks will be offering a whole midway of local favorites from corndogs to oysters to smoked barbecue and lots of sweet and icy treats. Since this is West County, there also will be several choices of vegan, vegetarian and old-hippie favorites.
Another returning feature is an art exhibit by the Art Workshop of Western Sonoma County (AWS) inside the Sebastopol Center for the Arts building in Ives Park. Most of the art will be available for sale.
There will be added activities and free attractions for children in and around the Ives Park playground area. Featured among the arts and crafts booths will also be several local nonprofit and community groups.
The Apple Blossom Festival will offer two stages of music on both days. (The performances are free with general festival admission.) On Saturday, local young musicians School of Rock and Gas Money will play on one stage while The Pinball Wizards and The Unauthorized Rolling Stones will rock out on the Back Stage, home of the summer Peacetown concerts. Later on Saturday, Dead Roses and Liquid Sky (Jimi Hendrix tribute) will close the late afternoon live music.
On Sunday, local favorites THUGZ (The Hippie Underground Zone) will play at 11:30 a.m., followed by the Bluebyrds, who mix in original Byrds songs with other ’60s music. Later on Sunday, Big Brother and the Holding Company will perform just ahead of the very popular Fleetwood Mac tribute band, Fleetwood Macramae.
Other Festival sponsors this year include The Barlow and Hopmonk Tavern, along with Silk Moon, Sprint Copy Center, Bliss Organic Day Spa, Weeks Drilling and North Coast Organic, among others.
There is also a free “preview night” from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, April 25, at Ives Park. Beer and other vendors will be available, and there will be a musical performance by the Peacetown All-Stars.
“We expect to have great weather and a fun weekend,” said the Chamber’s Volk. “All the money we earn will be put back into the community so we can bring more activities here and help our city with its financial challenges.”
Learn more at appleblossomfest.com.
Become an Apple Blossom Volunteer!
The Chamber is still seeking festival volunteers. Be a part of this classic, small-town event and earn free admission. Sign up under the Apple Blossom Volunteer tab. You can select the specific job and shift you’d like to volunteer for.
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This 79th annual festival is looking to be a GREAT one! Awesome "Flower Power" poster by Analy students -- same for Stanley Mouse's music poster, wow! The line up looks amazing. Hope this is the best fest yet! Congratulations to Traditional Medicinals on their 50th anniversary. Thanks for this wonderful article Rollie!