Places to Avoid - Ithaca Apple Festival

The Ithaca Apple Festival is great for Downtown Ithaca. Tons of new students from both Cornell and IC flood the commons and probably bring in tons of money for local businesses and vendors. And yes, there's tons of tents and stuff to see, if you can see above the crowd, but it is just NOT a place to bring kids and strollers. There are just too many people. And the lines are just too unstructured. Your stroller-ed child will be staring at the backs of knees above all else, and you will invariably hit and run over pedestrian toes no matter how careful you are. And un-strollered children will not fare much better, as they will be tossed and squeezed through tiny cracks of spaces all in an effort to just make it back to your car. Or, maybe it's just best to go on Friday, and avoid the weekend. I haven't tried that yet. But it will take me a long time to get up the gumption.