After seven years away, the People’s Choice Festival of Pennsylvania Arts & Crafts has returned to the place where it began.
The four-day festival was once again being held on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg Thursday through Sunday after spending four years at the Grange Fairgrounds in Centre Hall and missing 2020 and 2021 due to COVID restrictions.
Organizers say the move restores the event’s longtime connection with the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in State College while bringing artists and visitors back to the setting that hosted the festival for decades.
The festival featured more than 200 artists and craftspeople from across the country, along with live entertainment, food vendors, children’s activities and demonstrations.
People’s Choice relocated to the Grange Fairgrounds in 2022 after museum officials expressed concerns that the festival had outgrown its longtime home in Boalsburg and did not offer a long-term contract. While the larger venue offered additional space and parking, organizers announced earlier this year that the festival would return to the Military Museum grounds, citing the site’s atmosphere and proximity to the Arts Festival.
Volunteer coordinator and publicity director Amy Madison said visitors have welcomed the move.
“We’re very excited to be back,” Madison said. “We are glad that we were invited to be back on the Military Museum grounds.”
The return also comes with several additions to this year’s event.
“New this year is just going to be readjusting to the layout and seeing what we can do. We are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the country. We are doing Christmas in July once again, and we have a number of new entertainment options for kids,” Madison said.
Returning to Boalsburg has also brought more financial hurdles, organizers say. The festival charged $10 for parking this year to help offset higher operating costs associated with the move.
“Currently our expenses have gone up in the move, so in order to cover the expenses of the show, we do have to charge a parking fee,” Madison said. “Whether or not that will always be the same is a question we have to look at later, but that is why we decided to charge for parking and why we set the price where we did.”
Even with the additional expense, Madison said the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I think that over here in Boalsburg because people were used to coming here, and you can see it from the road, and it has that festival atmosphere, everybody is excited and in a good mood,” she said. “They’re glad we’re here, and they love being back. The Grange did have advantages, so we don’t want to say that it didn’t, but overall, the community really appreciates it being here.”
It was also connected to downtown State College by shuttle buses that ran Thursday through Saturday, allowing visitors to travel between the two festivals without moving their vehicles.
Lee Anne Jeffries, executive director of the Downtown State College Improvement District, said the return to Boalsburg strengthens the relationship between the two events.
“I’m happy to see that People’s Choice is coming back [to Boalsburg], and I think when it was in the Grange Fair, we lost that connectivity,” Jeffries said. “I think some people would actually do both festivals in one day, and I know that the Arts Festival was working with the organizers at the People’s Choice to charter bus loops, so that people don’t have to drive to and from, they can pop on a bus and go to both festivals and return back to their car. So that’s really exciting. I hope that they are finding success back in that location.”
Among the returning artists was broom maker Jeff Heilman, of Lebanon, who creates traditional handcrafted brooms using natural materials and antique equipment.
Heilman followed in the footsteps of his mentor, Bob Haffly, who exhibited at the festival for decades before his final show in 2017. Heilman first participated in 2019 and has returned each year since the festival resumed following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As a business person, I appreciate 322 going right by here and the connection to downtown. That’s historic. I mean, that’s how this all started,” Heilman said. “That’s kind of additional branching off of what’s going on at the Arts Festival, and also at this location, this can be set up in a big circle, so you can just go around and visit all the artists. Over at the other place, it was more like a square. I missed this layout and I’m glad we’re back.”
For Heilman, the return also reconnects him with longtime customers.
“Brooms have been sold here for decades,” he said. “That means there are people who want to come back and get another one. It’s hard to start a business like this if the product lasts five or six years. Five or six years, maybe you’ll get the person back.”
Nora Campanella, owner of Sea Glass, also saw the benefits of the festival’s return to Boalsburg. A Penn State graduate, Campanella began creating jewelry and watercolor artwork using sea glass she collected while visiting her father in Puerto Rico.
“My jars started to get out of control collecting it and I’m artsy, so I decided to start using my sea glass in handcrafted jewelry and art,” she said. “So I started making original watercolor art and I started doing shows and selling it. It’s become my therapy.”
After finding it difficult to earn a spot in the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, Campanella applied to People’s Choice three years ago while it was still at the Grange Fairgrounds.
“Once I started doing my art, I really wanted to get into it, but over several years it became really difficult to get into that show,” she said. “Someone then told me about this show, another vendor, and I applied here three years ago when it was back in Grange, and so I got in, and I really liked it. This year is my first year at this venue and it’s been amazing so far. It’s gone way better than over at Grange, so I really like it here.”
She said the biggest difference between the two venues has been the number of visitors.
“One major comparison that I’ve noticed is the traffic. There’s a lot more people traffic here than over there,” Campanella said. “I noticed that over there too, they didn’t have the buses going back and forth between State College and that venue over there. The [foot] traffic is a lot heavier.”
The increased attendance is especially important during periods of bad weather, she said.
“I know that with low traffic, bad weather, vendors will really think twice whether they want to do it again,” Campanella said. “So this one here, the traffic is here, so we’re still able to make up our losses when the weather is bad. I think it’s a lot more convenient for people to get to.”
She also praised the layout at the Military Museum, which allows vendors to keep trailers behind their booths for easier access to inventory throughout the day.
“The setting here, I think, is wonderful because people have the opportunity to walk around and check all the vendors out,” Campanella said. “I love the open space and the open concept. I love the fact that we’re able to keep our trailers behind us because when we run out of inventory, it’s so easy to run and go grab it. It’s convenient too, especially for someone like me. I’m here by myself all day, so it’s not like I can leave my booth and run to a different parking lot somewhere to grab more inventory if I needed to.”
Many vendors and organizers hope that the festival’s return to Boalsburg becomes permanent.
“I hope they keep it here,” she said. “I really do hope that they keep it here and that we can come back next year to this venue here.”
People’s Choice concludes at 4 p.m. Sunday, July 12.
