06/19/2022
Newville's 25th Fountain Festival celebration kicks off weekend
The Newville Fountain Festival opened on Friday. Following a two-year hiatus, the event returned with a parade through downtown, food vendors, artist booths and live music.
LOOK: For more photos from Fountain Festival, point your smartphone camera at the QR code and tap the link.
Maddie Seiler, The Sentinel
In 1996, historians Joan Brehm, Craig Kennedy and Bob Over realized it had been 100 years since the Newville fountain’s construction, so Brehm suggested a birthday party.
Brehm’s initial suggestion of cake and ice cream at the fountain was taken to a planning meeting where it became a two-day festival, the borough said.
This weekend, Newville is celebrating its 25th Fountain Festival after cancellations in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of vendor interest, respectively.
The event was held from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. It involves a variety of events and vendors.
Friday’s lineup included a performance by the Shippensburg Swing Band, a parade, a presentation from Over and a tractor twang line dance.
Saturday will feature a 5k run, a baking contest, a duck derby, Mr. Mike’s Dinosaur Show and more.
Vonny Nelson Eckman, of Carlisle, has been coming to the Fountain Festival for years and loves the opportunity to return to her hometown. “The older I get the more I want to come back,” said Eckman, who describes herself as “a Newville farmgirl.”
She said in the time she’s been coming, not a lot has changed about the small-town festival.
The event also brought first-time visitors like Tracy Porter of Carlisle. “So far, I’m very entertained by the swing band, that’s a lot of fun,” Porter said. “I like music so I’m really into that.”
Porter said this year was her first time at the festival. She and her boyfriend, Bill Tritt, came to visit their grandsons, Thomas Lawyer, 11, and Varren Unger, 5, who live in Newville. “We’re just having a great time, it’s a great atmosphere and I’m really enjoying it,” Porter said.
Jacob Foster of Newville said his favorite part of the festival is the annual book sale at the Friends of John Graham Library. https://www.cumberlandcountylibraries.org/JGR_Friends
“I’m a big Michael Crichton and Jeff Shaara fan, I’m looking for one of those guys,” he said, gesturing to the rows of books for sale.
He said he attended the festival this weekend so that his son could experience it for the first time.
“The food here is great, the time being here is great,” he said. “We only live five minutes away so it’s just nice to have this close by.”
Pop-up tents for food vendors lined Parsonage Street and some local dining locations opened for the occasion.
Whiskers Brewing http://www.whiskersbrewing.com/
at 9 S. High St. opened its outdoor area during the festival for attendees to enjoy a variety of beverage options. “Today we’ve been fairly busy,” General Manager Julie Laverty said. “The community has been a wonderful support.”
The micro-brewery has been operating outside on occasion since March, after a fire damaged much of the bar area and first floor on Feb. 28. “Since the fire, we had this space and we had the beer so we figured it’s getting nice, and that we would open up,” Laverty said. She said Whiskers Brewing serves drinks outside mostly on Fridays and Saturdays and that she usually coordinates with the owners, Dean and Katie Yaukey, to decide when they’ll be serving outside based on the weather.
The building’s siding has been replaced since the fire, new windows have been installed and the brewing area has been completed, Laverty said. Next on the agenda is work on the kitchen and bar area as well as the room upstairs. “Our goal I think is to be open (inside) sometime in August but fingers crossed,” Laverty said.
A full schedule of the festival’s events https://www.newvilleborough.com/event/fountain-festival can be found online at the Newville Borough’s website.
Credit: The Sentinel
https://cumberlink.com/news/local/communities/newville/newvilles-25th-fountain-festival-celebration-kicks-off-weekend/article_086580d6-ee95-11ec-9843-ef3ea6fef9cf.html -source=login
Photos credit: Jason Malmont, The Sentinel
