July 2005

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The Little Festival that Could

by Janet Powers

Despite competition from other Festivals on all sides, the Adams County Heritage Festival will be holding its own on Sunday, September 18, from noon until 5 PM at the Gettysburg Rec Park. The fourteenth annual Festival continues true to its mission of appreciating the cultural heritage of Adams County and beyond, through food, entertainment, and the arts. In addition, we offer a full afternoon of children’s activities geared to various age groups.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn about zydeco, this is the year! Zydeco‑a‑Go‑Go, out of Philadelphia, will be featured performers, not only on the Main Stage but also in the Children’s Area. What’s more, they will give a brief concert at Green Acres before their appearance at the Festival. A clutch of instruments–accordion, vocals, piano, guitar, saxophone and rub‑board or “frattoir”–will provide swinging bayou rhythms.

Eight young Indian classical dancers, from Natya Kala Mandir in Baltimore, will perform in exquisite traditional dress, and our own Generación Diez young people will present costumed dances from south of the border. Lea Gilmore sings the blues, along with two other members of Sangmelé, who will perform music with African roots. Of course, we’ll open with our traditional bagpiper and also have the pleasure of listening to music from the British Isles with Cormorant’s Fancy.

As usual, we’ll have craft demonstrators, including an oil painter, a weaver, chair caning, and musical instrument‑making. If you’re longing for massage therapy, that will also be available. And what would a Heritage Festival be without the goats? If food is your big thing, then rest easy, for Amy’s Thai Cuisine will be back, along with Jamaican and Soul food, Blank’s Country Cooking, and many others.

Various non-profit organizations will be on hand to distribute information about their work and talk to festival‑goers about volunteer opportunities. The last hour of the Festival will feature a children’s play, “The Little Red Hen: A Barnyard of Hen Stories,” performed by the Adams County Traveling Children’s Theatre Troupe. Those attending may want to bring blankets or chairs, as we often run out of seating, despite a frenzy of table and chair borrowing by the Festival Committee.

If you would like to help with the Festival in any way, even for an hour or two, contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Cynthia Reimel, at the YWCA, 334-9171, and she will find a job suited to your ability and interests. If you want additional information about the Festival, call the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice at 334-0752 or visit http://www.icpj-gettysburg.org/festival.htm. One useful act would be a prayer for good weather on Sept. 18. We always hold our collective breath, vowing all the while that the Festival will go on, rain or shine. And indeed it will!

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Last updated July 13, 2005

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