One of the largest attended events in Norton is the annual
Cider Festival, now held on the first weekend of October, organized by a private committee and sponsored by the Lions Club. Begun in 1988 by the Lions Club in the historic Loyal Oak area, it spread throughout the Loyal Oak neighborhood.
Streets were closed during this special weekend to make room for the hundreds of visitors from neighboring communities. In 2008, the Festival's 20th year, the festival moved to Columbia Woods Park located at 4060 Columbia Woods Drive.
The larger and idyllic park surroundings accommodates the growing crowds and provides more room to expand and enhance the Festival for even more cider tasting and apple delicacies, games, rides, exhibits, contests, a gazebo for the concerts and, of course, the traditional gobbling up of the pancakes at the Boy Scout Troop 132's pancake breakfast held before and after the festival’s kick-off parade through the middle of town. As the city logo indicates, come to Norton, a Growing Community.