Fall festival features food, fun for all
ZELIENOPLE — Visitors can step back in time and experience life during simpler days as the 28th annual Country Fall Festival returns Saturday and Sunday to Zelienople and Harmony.
The festival, sponsored by the Business Association of the Zelienople-Harmony Chamber of Commerce, will be held from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Events will take place in Zelienople on Main Street and at the Four Corners Park at the intersection of North Main Street and Grandview Avenue, and throughout downtown Harmony.
Ethel Mae Hall, festival organizer, said there will be crafters, food vendors, and live music at the park gazebo and throughout the festival for people to enjoy.
Some of the musical acts slated to perform will include: Bill Campbell, The Country Showcase Band, Bob Geresti, The Butler Notables, Pat Blackburn, Jonathan Fisher, The Banjo All Starts, Rick Breuning, The Southernaires, The Dan Hulse Banjo Minstrel Show, and This, That and This Other Thing.Arts and craftsAn array of arts and crafts will be available, including handcrafted jewelry, handbags, decorative candle warmers, carved candles, painted items, Christmas ornaments, children's items, welcome signs, women's accessories, natural pet treats, kitchen tools, fudge and chocolate, polymer clay figurines, food mixers, pottery and baskets.A crowd favorite, Amish doughnuts, will be available on Saturday only.
A farmers market will feature orchard fresh apples, jams and jellies, farm produce, apple cider, fresh baked apple and pumpkin pies, apple dumplings, cookies, pumpkin rolls, and breads.Pumpkins of all sizes, fall mums, cornstalks, gourds, squash, Indian corn, straw, fall arrangements, wreaths, and more fall decorative items also will be available.
Re-enactment groups also will be on hand.The Independent Mountain Men of Pennsylvania encampment provides a living history from the American frontier period of 1700 to 1840.A Civil War encampment of the 101st Pa. Volunteer Infantry showcases their lives during the Civil War.Rich Ambrose will demonstrate how to make corn meal as people did in the past with his working 1911 Stickney engine operating a Burr Mill, said Hall.
Other attractions will include a beekeeper, antique farm equipment displays, antique tools and appliances, rope making, bucket making and other demonstrations.A chili cook off on Saturday, along with children's activities, live music and food, will be held at the Main and West Spring Street parking lot in Zelienople.A car cruise will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday in Creekside Plaza on Route 19, just outside of Zelienople in Jackson Township. There will be music, food, door prizes and a 50-50 raffle.There also will be pony rides for children and the horse drawn trolley rides that take riders on a quick jaunt around the block.“Everyone really seems to enjoy the horse drawn trolley rides,” Hall said.
New this year, Hall said, are more events that will take place in Harmony including the borough's Sleepy Hollow Festival, which coincides with the ongoing activities of the fall festival.A breakfast and soup sale, a flea market, live music, pumpkin decorating and a scavenger hunt will take place there.From 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday, there will be “An Evening in Haunted Harmony” at the Harmony Museum's Stewart Hall with guest speakers, paranormal and metaphysical vendors, history/ghost walking tours and a two-hour investigation of active buildings.Schedules are available at fallfestival.zelie.us.
