Zelienople's fall festival going strong for longer than 3 decades
Even after 32 years the organizers of the Zelienople and Harmony Country Fall Festival still manage to round up new attractions for festival-goers
“It's something the whole family can take part in,” said organizer and festival committee president Ethel Mae Hall.
This year's Fall Festival will be held Oct. 8 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Oct. 9 from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free and the event is hosted by the Zelienople Area Business Association.
New this year are a couple musical acts and a baker, tavern chef and gristmills of Western Pennsylvania demonstration, Hall said. Zanella Milling, of West Sunbury, will have buckwheat, corn and whole wheat flours and demonstrate dutch oven cooking and baking of historic recipes.
Although it's thriving now, Hall said the festival had a rocky start more than 30 years ago. The first year they only had one band lined up and the Hungarian club sold cabbage rolls, which they sold out of in a few hours, before many of the people even showed up.
So one of the committee members sent guests to Hall's business across the creek near Northgate Plaza, which at the time had a farmer's market, car repair shop and other things. They had apples and pumpkins for sale out front so the day was saved, Hall said.
It grew each year after that on Main Street, picking up craft vendors, musical acts, historical reenactors and food vendors. The event is organized each year by a committee of 14 local business owners.
“Zelie has a long tradition of festivals,” Borough Manager Don Pepe said. “Zelienople is one of those towns that festivals are fostered and encouraged in. It's something we really enjoy.”
In each of the town's four corners of Zelienople's Main Street Park are designated activities, attractions and vendors. The arts, crafts and entertainment corner, farmer's market corner, homemade country food corner and the historical encampments corner offer something for every visitor. There's also live music acts playing throughout both days of the festival at the gazebo in town.
“We like to keep it a homey atmosphere,” Hall said.
After visiting the main attractions in Zelienople's park, visitors can take tours of Zelienople's historic Passavant and Buhl houses and Historic Harmony's museum. In Harmony, there will be activities both days on Main and Mercer Streets, including a Halloween Art Show at the Bottlebrush Gallery, weaving demos and a sheep petting zoo at Weavers Cabin and Steeltown Paranormal Team demos at Harmony Museum's Stewart Hall.
A free shuttle bus, sponsored by Lutheran Senior Life and Passavant Retirement Community will pick up and drop off visitors at various locations through both towns. For those who prefer a more rustic means of transportation, a team of horses pulling a wagon is also going to make its way through town taking people for rides.
“It's amazing how many people ride that,” Hall said. “I've calculated that in a day and a half, at least 3,000 people ride that wagon around.”
To get the town into the autumn spirit, Hall said they get 144 bunches of corn stalks to place around all of the parking meters and light poles.
“It not only brings folks into town, but it's an awful nice event,” Pepe said. “It's typical of a town like Zelie, but I'm sure you're not going to find it anywhere else.”
For a full schedule of events and activities, visit zeliefallfest.com.
Rachel Farkas is a Tribune-Review contributor.
