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Summer is here: Canopy goes up in Barclay Square |
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Local Content -
Local News
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Written by Larry McGuire
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Tuesday, 16 June 2009 |
Workers from various organizations helped set up the large canopy for the Groundhog Festival, which is scheduled to begin June 28 in Barclay Square. The placement of the large white canopy is considered the unofficial beginning to summer. (Photo by Larry McGuire/The Punxsutawney Spirit)
PUNXSUTAWNEY — The unofficial start to summer took place Monday when the Groundhog Festival Committee erected the large white canopy over the bandstand in Barclay Square.
Roger Steele, chairman of the Groundhog Festival Committee, said the committee has had a canopy for just over 10 years.
"This is our second tarp. Our first one lasted until last year," Steele said. "This is the second year for the new canopy."
Steele said it looked for a canopy for many years, and found this one at a rental agency in Harrisburg.
"Thanks goes out to Dan Ritchie Welding. He built the stands for us, and helped the rental agency engineer figure out how it would fit over the bandstand," Steele said. "If it hadn't been for them willing to give us a shot, and Dan (Ritchie) working with us to put the stands under it, we never would have had a canopy over the bandstand."
Steele said several companies offered to build a canopy for them, but each had posts in the front that would've blocked the view of the entertainers.
"This canopy actually isn't built for this purpose — it's actually a tent," he said. "We re-designed it for this, and the engineers out of British Columbia cannot believe how we re-worked it to use it this way.
"They now have a way of hooking these canopies together," Steele said. "You can actually hook 10 to 12 of these together, so we could canopy the entire park. We could do it if someone would start with an endowment of $250,000."
Steele said the canopy has been very important to the festival.
"Since we bought the canopy, we've never had a washout of a show on stage," Steele said. "Some audiences were inconvenienced by the rain, but our performers still went on, and we haven't had a rain-out yet."
Steele said when they used to move inside because of the weather in years past, the crowd did not follow them.
"It was better to not even have one (a show) than to move it inside and have more entertainers on stage than people in the audience," he said.
"The vendors make this all happen. We have food vendors in the park that pay a large percentage of our total budget. We started out with six food vendors and now we have 18 food vendors," he said.
"We want them to provide us with the cash to put good sound entertainment on stage."
Steele said they continue to receive support from the community.
"We have festival sponsors which start at $100 and you can be a ‘friend of the festival' for $25," Steele said. "We are one of the few festivals in Western Pennsylvania that has not cut back.
"Some festivals have cut back days of the week, and some have cancelled altogether because of the economy," he said. "We have such a generous community that's willing to say: We believe we can have a good festival, and we will donate the money.'"
Steele said the entertainers at the festival are from all over the east coast and are surprised that there isn't a gate or fence surrounding the park.
"We've never had one, and we never intend to have one," Steele said. "The festival has always been free, and we're dedicated to keeping it free.
"We have never accepted a tax dollar to support this endeavor," he said. "We pay our own way. We receive no grants or subsidies from the government. We belong to the State Fair Association, but we pay dues. A lot of state fairs receive monies to put on their shows, but because we do not qualify as a county fair, we can't draw money from harness racing and everywhere else."
Steele said the festival will begin Sunday, June 28, with three gospel music groups from the community, a group coming from Nashville and John Bressler, otherwise known as "the keyboard guy."
Steele said Sunday wasn't always a scheduled day for the festival.
"We used to gather here and put the flags on stage and said ‘the festival is officially open' and we went home," Steele said. "We originally shared the week with the Firemen's Old Homeweek Committee, and the evening entertainment was to go to the carnival. We've been separated for a number of years, and I think we complement each other. They have a nice carnival, and they have nice grounds to have it on now. They have their parade on Saturday, and we're setting up so we can watch the parade."
Steele said the canopy originally was used only for the Groundhog Festival, but now, it remains in place for the Relay For Life, which is a week after the festival, Church in the Park, which is scheduled for Sunday, July 26, and this year, for the National Night Out program that will take place in August.
For more information on the Groundhog Festival, visit www.groundhogfestival.com.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 June 2009 )
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