Batesville Festival To Celebrate Cherry Thing-A-Lings

These fried treats are perhaps Batesville's best attraction. The city is looking to capitalize with a new festival.

Schmidt Bakery photo.

(Batesville, Ind.) - The annual treat that started a community tradition in the early 1970s is now starting a new tradition: the Cherry-Thing-A-Ling Festival.

Once a year, Schmidt Bakery in Batesville draws a crowd of excited customers who have been waiting all year for the annual sale of their Cherry-Thing-A-Lings. In 2018 Schmidt’s bakery sold around 119,000 of the fritter type donuts over Presidents' Day weekend surpassing their total sales from 2017 where they sold around 83,000 of the tasty treats.

The bakery says that they only make these treats the weekend of Presidents' Day because of the folk tale that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree as a child.

The inaugural festival hosted by Batesville Main Street will take place on Friday, February 15 and Saturday, February 16. There will be free ice skating at the Village Green on these two days as well on Friday from 5:00 until 9:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.

Customers will be able to purchase the Cherry-Thing-A-Lings from the bakery starting on Thursday, February 14 until Monday, February 18.