MALONE – This weekend the community will once again host a two-day fly-in festival hosted by the Malone Chamber of Commerce.
On both Saturday and Sunday, starting at 10 a.m., there will be a weekend festival at Malone-Dufort Airport, where the airport will present itself to visitors and locals.
Mary Scharf, president of the Malone Chamber of Commerce, said the hope is that the fly-in will attract visitors to the town and village and support local businesses.
“The idea is to support our businesses by bringing people to Malone and providing them with a destination,” Scharf said.
According to a prepared statement from the Malone Chamber of Commerce, the festival will include educational presentations, vendors, live entertainment and food. Weather permitting, helicopters and airplanes will be on site for viewing, touring and flying.
Scharf said there will be several food vendors on site during the weekend festival offering pizza, coffee, wine and other food, and local restaurant Hosler’s will also have a presence at the airport.
According to Scharf, admission to the festival is $5 for adults and free for those under 16.
Live bands will perform at the Fly-In Festival over the weekend – on Saturday, according to Scharf, the Two Tall String Band will play in the morning, Last Call in the afternoon and Slab City will be on stage in the evening.
Scharf said Sunday that Friends Union would begin playing in the morning and Phoenix Mendoza in the afternoon.
According to Scharf, helicopter and airplane flights are organized independently of the chamber and led by the pilots themselves.
The chamber neither collects the money nor reserves the trips; both are done on site, said Scharf.
The Chamber encourages visitors and fly-in pilots to come to Malone and see for themselves why it is a great destination with the Wilder Homestead, Malone Golf Club, historic districts, fly fishing streams and hiking trails as some of the area’s attractions.
A number of local businesses contributed to the fly-in this year, the release said, including Community Health Center of the North Country, DesiMo Productions, Citizen Advocates, Explore Adirondack Frontier, Café Nouveau, Sid G. Spear Insurance, the Free Trader, Wild Country Radio, Ellis Auto, Adirondack Energy and TruNorthern Federal Credit Union.
The event is also supported by: Holiday Inn Express, Asept Pak, Alice Hyde Medical Center, Dr. Kevin Poupore, North Country Savings Bank, Seacomm Federal Credit Union, Ellis Automotive, Berkshire Farms, United Ag and Turf, Mountain Marketing and Community Bank.
According to the chamber’s release, the fly-in is sponsored in part with funds from the Franklin County Development and Marketing Program.
