The Seventeenth Annual Adams County Heritage Festival will be held at the Gettysburg Recreation Park on Sunday, September 21, 2008 from 12 noon until 5 pm. Click here for directions to the Gettysburg Recreation Park. Click here for photos and entertainment schedules from previous Heritage Festivals.
What we are | Sponsorship & Funding | Planning & Organization | For vendors or exhibitors | For sponsors | Contact us
The Adams County Heritage Festival is. . .
	a celebration of ethnic music, food, and crafts that reflects the multicultural atmosphere of Adams County, Pennsylvania.
	a way of sharing our various traditions and appreciating the best that each ethnic group has to offer
	a commitment to community and the goal of living together in harmony
What we are. . .
		The Adams County Heritage Festival is held in the Gettysburg Recreation Park on the third Sunday in September from 12 noon until 5 pm. Family-oriented entertainment includes music, dance, and a children's play, as well as a full afternoon of children's activities, including games, storytelling, and piñatas. No admission fee is charged. Continuously throughout the afternoon, craft vendors and demonstrators have displays in booths on the park grounds. Ethnic foods are offered for sale by local citizens, church groups, restauranteurs, and community organizations. Local non-profit organizations have display booths, usually grouped in tents. A nominal fee is charged to all vendors and non-profit groups who exhibit at the Festival. Carriage and pony rides are offered by a local vendor. Attendance is typically 1000-1200. top
Sponsorship & Funding
		The Heritage Festival originated in a Futures Retreat sponsored by the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice in 1991. ICPJ continues to sponsor and oversee the festival. This project is funded in part by a Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA) grant.  The PA Partners in the Arts (PPA) program is an initiative between local arts organizations and the PA Council on the Arts (PCA), a state agency.  State government funding for the arts comes through an annual appropriation by PA's General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.  PPA is administered in this region by the Council for the Arts in Chambersburg. This project is supported in part by the STAR Grant Program, developed by the Adams County Arts Council and funded by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency, the Adams County Commissioners, and the Borough of Gettysburg. This project is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by the Vira I. Heinz Endowment; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. This project is also supported in part by a grant from Gettysburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, 102 Carlisle Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325. We have also received grants from the Robert C. Hoffman Charitable Endowment Trust and the Le Van Family Foundation. Mount St. Mary's University supports the festival by donating printing costs for the programs. Additional sources of revenue include fees charged to vendors and non-profit exhibitors, as well as the sale of T-shirts and program ads. The principal expense is payment of entertainers, followed by rental of tents and equipment. The Festival is insured through ICPJ's general liability insurance policy. top
Planning & Organization
		The Festival is planned and supervised by an organizing committee, which reports to the Board of ICPJ. Committee members need not be members of ICPJ. The Adams County Art Council and the YWCA of Gettysburg and Adams County are represented on the committee. From the beginning, the organizing committee has been multi-ethnic and multicultural. The operation of the Festival is assisted by numerous volunteers, including students from the Center for Public Service at Gettysburg College, students from Mount Saint Mary's University, the Cornell-Abraxas Leadership Development Program, Scout troops, and Rec Park staff. We are more than happy to welcome new members to the Heritage Festival Organizing Committee, as well as on-site volunteers who are willing to set up and take down on the day of the Festival. Email us at achf@icpj-gettysburg.org for more information about volunteering to help with the Festival! top

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