LEHMAN TWP. — Penn State Wilkes-Barre will soon become a hub of homemade art and history.
The Arts at Hayfield Summer Festival will return for its 31st year on Sunday, Aug. 30 and will run from 10:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Janis Winter, festival chairwoman, said the idea for the summer event is a way to bring the community together for a fun filled evening and bring some life to the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus.
“It was meant to use the campus and offer something for the community,” she said. “There will be various demonstrations and we will have musical performances. It’s really meant to be a nice community day.”
The Arts at Hayfield Summer Festival will offer more than 110 artists, performers, crafts people and food vendors.
Artists demonstrations include bonsai art by Carl Achhammer, paper quilling and origami with Helen Grebski, and pottery with Skip Sensbach.
There will also be woodcarving and wheat weaving demonstrations.
Winter said there will be ways for children to be involved as well.
“Kids’ stuff will include pottery for children as well as general crafts with small projects of various kinds,” said Winter. “There will also be face painting by Bonnie Hilsiter and caricatures being done by John Krupa. Janet Baker will have a story time for the kids as well.”
Other children activities include making pinecone birdfeeders and paper painting.
A variety of festival foods will be offered as well, including burgers, wraps, Middle Eastern foods, chicken tenders, potato pancakes, haluski, pierogies, snow cones, pizza, hot dogs and kielbasa, funnel cakes, roasted flavored nuts, fresh lemonade and ice cream from Hillside Farms.
Entertainment includes Renee Rosier on the bagpipes, a magic show by Pat Ward and a performance by the folk rock band Just Us.
A juggler will do a stage performance and will also spend time walking around the festival entertaining the masses.
Winters said one of the main attractions of the summer festival is the opportunity to tour the inside of the Hayfield House and learn about John Conyngham, the gentleman farmer whose interest in farming gave rise to Hayfield Farms in 1910.
Tours will be happening at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
“This is the only time the tour for the Hayfield House is open to the community and it’s a neat opportunity to go into the history of the area,” said Winters. “It’s exciting for people who haven’t done it.”
With various renovations and construction projects being done on the campus grounds, Winters said there will be no new attractions this year and that it was easier to go with vendors and performers already familiar with the event incase adjusting needed to be done with schedules.
Regardless of the lack of new performers, Winters said it should not diminish the desire to attend the summer festival, and that she looks forward to community outing and the interaction between citizens and crafters.
“I look forward to the crafters and their enthusiasm and the energy of everyone being set up next to each other,” she said. “We try to get people who do their own work, but who also have an interest in having it grow. Every crafter you can talk to about what they do.”
