VillageFest on the move
SLIPPERY ROCK — VillageFest, which has been held on Main Street since it started in 2002, will be forced to change locations this year.
The annual festival, organized by Slippery Rock Development, is planned for Sept. 12 and will be held on the Slippery Rock University campus.
The state Department of Transportation will not permit the group to close one block of Main Street because it is being used as a detour while part of Route 8 is closed for construction.
While road crews replace a bridge on Route 8 in Slippery Rock Township, PennDOT is directing traffic down Routes 173 and 108. The work is expected to continue until October.
Slippery Rock Development and the borough were notified at the end of April and had to seek an alternate location, said Tom McPherson, Slippery Rock Development's executive director.
SRU offered to allow the event to set up on its upper campus near Main Street, which officials agreed was the best available option.
The other viable location, Slippery Rock Community Park, would have been further from downtown and less visible to passing traffic.
The event's goal is to attract people to the borough and showcase its businesses and offerings, McPherson said.
“It is a community event so that was the place to have it,” he said about the Main Street location.
Despite being a little further from downtown, the event is still expected to draw crowds. It coincides with SRU's family and friends weekend, which makes it one of the busiest days of the year for the community, McPherson said.
SRU campus will offer more space than is available on Main Street and it will likely be able to accommodate more booths for vendors, he said.
Though some Main Street businesses won't reap the same benefit as having the festival in its usual loc ation, many are sponsors and will still set up booths on SRU.Rita Abent, SRU's executive director for public relations, told borough council last week about the university's offer.SRU's Homecoming parade, planned for Oct. 10, will also be prohibited from using Main Street because of the detour.The parade is still planned, but will have to use an alternate route that excludes state roads, Abent said.
