In an economy where every dollar earned is valuable, the Murphysboro Apple Festival remains family-friendly by sticking to its original alcohol-free policies.

The four-day festival begins the second Wednesday after Labor Day and is host to events such as parades, gospel concerts, a carnival, apple pie contests, a pageant and more. With 62 years of operation, the festival remains a constant staple for Murphysboro, drawing an average of 45,000 attendees each year.

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Festival Chairman Shawn Stearns said both the 8,000-person city of Murphysboro and the festival board members are proud of the no-alcohol policy because of the atmosphere it creates. He said the policy has been in place as long as he can remember.

“It’s not about the money; it’s about the families,” he said. “Could we make more money if we sold alcohol? Yes. But that’s not what we’re about. We’re about supporting the community that we live in.”

Michael Laughland, a detective with the Murphysboro Police Department, has patrolled the festival for 18 years and said the alcohol-free policy plays an important role in his job.

“It plays a big part in keeping things peaceful,” he said. “A lot of times when you have alcohol, you have drugs, you have problems, and that’s not what they want here.”

The festival is set up in the heart of Murphysboro by blocking off areas of downtown streets in order to house the midway of carnival rides and food vendors.

“They like to keep it downtown by all the local businesses,” Laughland said. “It has a huge impact on the local economy.”

Stearns said supporting the local economy is a source of pride for the festival, and was the foundation of the event from the very beginning.

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“This was actually started by a group of small-business owners,” he said. “When you look around, we have an incredible amount of orchards in this area, and back when this started, the apple orchards were a big part of the local economy, such as how our wine trails are now.”

Stearns said local involvement is key to the festival’s success, from the apples, to the volunteers, even down to the theme — “Planting Seeds for Tomorrow” — that was chosen using ideas submitted from area schools.

“Our youth take part in shaping the whole festival,” he said. “The floats are designed around it, our fliers are designed around it and even our T-shirts. This festival is important to our children.”

Karen Hale of Murphysboro said she recalls attending the festival as a child. This year she helped with the float building for Christ Community Church, which won first place in the parade competition as well as the best overall float award.

“We have one of the biggest parades in southern Illinois,” she said. “This year it was almost three hours long.”

Hale said one of her favorite parts of the festival is the apple pie contest, which she ran for five years.

“I love to bake,” she said. “I entered this year and got third place in the traditional, and fourth place in non-traditional. A non-traditional has caramel, or nuts or other fruit, but it still has to be 50-percent apples.”

Hale said she volunteers her time at the festival because she likes to help others and because it has remained family-oriented.

“We have beautiful weather every year,” she said. “I believe in giving God honor, and when we do that he gives us good weather in return.”

Stearns said the success of the festival speaks for itself every year.

“When people think about Murphysboro, apple festival usually comes right behind it,” he said. “We want to keep the old-time street festival alive.”