MALONE — This weekend live music, vendors, food trucks and aircraft will be on-hand at the town’s airport for the annual Malone Fly-In Festival.
Running from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, the fifth annual fly-in will be hosted by the Malone Chamber of Commerce at Malone-Dufort Airport off Route 11.
Bruce Burditt, Malone’s airport manager, said the two-day fly-in will feature four bands, airplane and helicopter rides, and vendors by the airport with adults getting into the festival for $5, and children under 16 admitted free.
“There’s two bands each day, two different bands playing, all kinds of craft vendors, we are doing airplane and helicopter rides,” he said.
On Saturday, Merrik Follet and the Pickups followed by the Bangor Boys are scheduled to perform at the festival, according to the local chamber’s Facebook page, while Friends Union and the Kickin’ Back Band will round out the festival’s band lineup on Sunday.
Burditt said plane rides will cost $30 per person and helicopter rides will be offered for $49 per person, adding the plane rides are through Potsda-based LaValley Aviation and the helicopter rides are done by North Country Heliflite.
Burditt said a state police helicopter is slated to stop by the airport over the weekend with state police drones scheduled to visit as well, adding the state’s Department of Conservation will have a booth set up.
“There’s going to be a lot of attractions, a kids area with a bunch of games and a bouncy house for the kids. There’s attractions for all ages,” he said, “There’s going to be several craft vendors, also food trucks, I think there’s two food trucks and a coffee truck.”
According to Burditt, the idea behind starting up the fly-in, five years ago, was to both showcase the local airport and to have a festival during the summer. He said at recent festivals pilots from Canada, Vermont and other northern New York towns have traveled to Malone for the fly-in.
“We’ve had some from Canada, some from Vermont, Swanton and Burlington, Plattsburgh and from down in Rome, New York, from the airport down there people have come up, Massena and Potsdam too. They come from all over the place, all over the North Country and a few from Canada,” Burditt said, “Canada is hard to get here because they have to stop at an international airport first, Massena being one of them or Plattsburgh, pass customs and then they can come here.”
Burditt said he’s hoping for good weather this weekend.
“As always we are keeping our fingers crossed, Saturday is looking fantastic,” he said.
According to Burditt, one of his favorite parts of the annual festival is being around helicopters.
“I’m a big fan of helicopters. I hope the state police helicopter shows, they are scheduled to if they don’t have any High Peaks rescues. I enjoy that and I enjoy working with the law enforcement officers,” he said, “State police drones are a pretty important part of accident reconstruction and it’s always nice to talk with those guys.”
Burditt said he is hoping for a good crowd at the festival this weekend and is looking forward to meeting visitors to the airport out on the flight line.
“I’m hoping everybody comes down to the flight line and takes advantage of the fact that we are opening up the apron,” he said, “It’s a TSA secure area and we’re opening it up for everybody to walk around, see planes and get introduced to aviation and hopefully they will come and take a plane ride or a helicopter ride.”