Cranberry Community Days draws largest crowd
Lines for carnival rides were dozens of people deep, and huge crowds gathered in the park at the Cranberry Township Community Days festival this past weekend.
Bruce Mazzoni, president of Cranberry Township Community Chest and a member of the township board of supervisors, estimated that total attendance was 30% higher than the previous record year, 2018, which saw more than 25,000 visitors.
“We definitely exceeded the 30,000 mark,” Mazzoni said. “We were really surprised how many people came out.”
Despite a rainy start to the festival, Mazzoni said Saturday had the most visitors.
“I think people were excited, and they came out in tremendous amounts,” he said. “And the day was just beautiful.”
Township Parks and Recreation Director Pete Geis agreed, and thinks that the trend of high attendance may continue in the future.
“Honestly, I think people have been locked up for a year and a half,” Geis said. “People are really ready to get out. I'm sure the trend's going to continue. People are tired of being inside. I think we have a couple of years of the trend going up with this.”
Geis said proceeds from this year's carnival were the best ever.“We generated $17,626 in 2018, which was a record-setting year,” he said. “This year, we brought in $22,573. And that's just from the carnival. We had the big sponsorship from T-Mobile covering parking this year, so we weren't charging for parking.”Geis said the festival generated even more from sponsorships and vendor fees.“Percentage-wise, this is massive,” he said. “This was probably our largest attendance we've received.”
Proceeds gathered through vendors and sponsors will benefit the 2022 Community Chest Project of the Year, which has not yet been selected.Mazzoni says the committee plans to meet to discuss ideas for the project next month.“We'll be meeting in August to start the conversation,” he said. “My feeling is that it would be late fall, early winter that that conversation about the project will finish up. Depending on what project we ultimately settle on, I think it could be an 18-to-24-month project.”Some preliminary ideas are being discussed. One possibility was to add tiered stadium seating to the newly renovated amphitheater. However, any official decisions ultimately will be made by the committee.
