Also: Bike racers take to streets of West Chester
By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times
Classic aircraft and cars are just some of the thrills featured at this weekend’s 40th annual New Garden Festival of Flight.
The annual air show at the New Garden Flying Field in Toughkenamon has been staged continuously for more than 40 years and it continues to get better every year. The lively show has secured its place as one of Chester County’s oldest and best traditional events.
The 2016 Festival of Flight Air & Car Show (New Garden Flying Field, off Route 1, Toughkenamon, 610-268-2619, http://www.newgardenflyingfield.com) is scheduled for August 20 and 21 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. each day.
Aerial displays will be performed by Kevin Russo SNJ-6 Aerobatics, Jason Flood in a Pitts Special biplane, Greg Koontz & The Alabama Boys, Greg Shelton’s Wildcat Flight, Dan Marcotte’s Ultimate 10-200 Biplane and the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum’s Eastern Aircraft TBM Avenger and North American B25-J “Mitchell.”
Other attractions at this weekend’s show at the New Garden Airport include demonstrations by RC modelers, souvenir stands, airplane rides, a pancake breakfast, an antique and classic car show and food and beverage concessions.
As a special attraction, Bill Fili, veteran WWII pilot and P.O.W. will present a story and book signing at 11 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
Video link for Kevin Russo — http://www.kevinrussoairshows.com/video.asp?f=video_01.wmv&w=320&h=240
The ticket price schedule is — adults,
Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children (ages 6-12) and free for children (five and under).
On August 20, West Chester will host the 11th Annual Iron Hill Twilight Criterium (downtown West Chester, http://www.ironhilltwilightcriterium.com ) with activities scheduled for the entire day.
The Iron Hill Twilight Criterium is a professional cycling event that is part of the USA CRITS Championship series. In this event, a large group of professional cyclists will race 60 laps around a one-mile circuit in downtown West Chester with the start and finish lines at Gay and High streets.
The Rothman Institute Amateur Men’s Criterium is scheduled to start at 5:45 p.m. followed by the Brumbaugh Wealth Management Pro Women’s Criterium at 6:45 p.m. and the Pro Men’s Criterium at 8 p.m.
The Rothman Institute Amateur Qualifiers will be held from 8 a.m.-3:45 p.m. There will also be the West Chester Dental Arts Kids Race at 3:30 p.m. and the Tolsdorf Twilight Trike Challenge at 4:30 p.m.
The “Market Street Block Party” will open at 4 p.m. and offer a variety of family fun activities including a kids’ zone, food vendors and live entertainment.
Booths include health and fitness offerings, home improvement vendors and service providers, food and beverage concessions and non-profit agencies.
The bicycle race/street festival event is free and open to the public.
This weekend is a great time to make the short drive south to Delaware City.
The historic waterfront community in Delaware has much to offer visitors including Fort Delaware, ferry rides, Battery Park, a colorful marina, Pea Patch Island and a variety of top-flight restaurants — including some on Clinton Street with racy names such as Crabby Dick’s and Lewinsky’s on Clinton.
Cirque Italia
Delaware City will have another special attraction this weekend — the first area visit by the prestigious Cirque Italia. The circus will have seven performances now though August 21 under the grand, swirling White-and-Blue tent at Fort DuPont (248 Kent Avenue, Delaware City, https://cirqueitalia.com).
Cirque Italia is a show like no other — the first traveling water circus in the United States.
The circus’ stage holds 35,000 gallons of water and features a dynamic lid which lifts 35 feet into the air, allowing water to fall like rain from above as fountains dazzle below. This incredible show takes place under “Grande Tenta” — the circus’ majestic white and blue big top tent which came all the way from Italy.
Manuel Rebecchi, Cirque Italia’s owner and founder, has a deep-seeded history in the circus industry. His late aunt, Moira Orfei, ran one of the largest circus shows in Europe.
When Rebecchi came to the states several years ago, he wanted to create something special and memorable. He was actually inspired to create the water stage while drinking a bottle of water one day.
“It’s a European style circus show with no animals and a Las Vegas style water show,” said Chris Morrell, Cirque Italia’s media manager, during a phone call Thursday afternoon from the event site. “It’s a water spectacular — more like a mini-Bellagio fountain show.”
Acts included a contortionist who is able to bend her body in ways you would never imagine, an Italian singer who stacks chair upon chair and then balances on top of them on his hands, thrilling high wire feats, twin juggling maniacs, elegant chiffons, and more.
“We have 15 performers from around the world from a number of countries — Peru, Bulgaria, Argentina, Romania, Mexico, the United States, and, of course, Italy,” said Morrell. “It’s a diverse group of performers. It’s a show for all ages.”
Video link for Cirque Italia — https://youtu.be/HCglUs4TFE0
Performances are 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. on August 19; 2:30, 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. on August 20; and 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. on August 21. Tickets start at $20.
This weekend, butterfly lovers will join with the staff at Tyler Arboretum (515 Painter Road, Media, 610-566-9134, www.tylerarboretum.org) for a special event focusing on the delicate, colorful insects.
On August 21, Tyler, which is one of the oldest and largest arboreta in the northeastern United States, will host its annual Bugs and Butterflies Festival. Visitors to Sunday’s event will be able to bid farewell to the monarch butterflies as the colorful insects are tagged and released for their southern migration to Mexico.
The arboretum will have butterfly experts available to provide information on creating a butterfly-friendly habitat in home gardens — an environment featuring all the butterflies’ favorite plants. Visitors will be able to learn all about butterflies that are native to our area — how they transform from egg to caterpillar, then to chrysalis, and finally to butterfly.
In Tyler Arboretum’s Butterfly House, visitors will be treated to looks at a wide array of native butterflies, including Spicebush Swallowtails, Eastern Tailed Blues, Great Spangled Fritillaries, and, of course, Monarchs. Attendees can learn about their favorite insects in Jon the Bugman’s insectariums and watch live bees in a demonstration hive at Pieter’s Apiary.
Tyler Arboretum, a non-profit public garden, encompasses 650 acres of renowned plant collections, heritage and champion trees and historic buildings — along with 17 miles of hiking trails through woodlands, wetlands and meadows.
Kids of all ages can participate in games and make-and-take crafts throughout the day.
Food treats will be available from Little Baby’s Ice Cream Cart, The Meat Wagon and Sum Pig. As always, visitors are invited to bring picnic lunches.
Visitors will be able to check out the Academy of Natural Sciences’ “Amazing Arthropods Touch Table” to see — or hold — their favorite insect friends. The festival and all of its activities are included with the arboretum’s standard admission fee.
The event runs 10 a.m.-2 p.m. — rain or shine. Admission to the festival is included with general admission tickets, which are $11 for adults (ages 16-64), $9 for seniors (65 and older) and $7 for youths (ages 3-15). Children (under 3) are admitted free.
Colonial Gardens hosts a Butterfly Festival this weekend.
On August 20, there will also be a Butterfly Festival at Colonial Gardens (745 Schuylkill Rd, Phoenixville, 610-948-9755, www.colonialgardenspa.com).
The festive and colorful event, which will be held in the Garden, will feature a “Butterfly Release” of 170 butterflies with releases scheduled for 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Visitors to the annual event will be able to learn about the life cycle of Monarchs and how to create their own way station to protect the fragile insects. The festival will also feature Issac Brown with his Bee Positive Educational Seminar.
Other activities will be wagon rides, Moonbounce, free photo booth, mazes, games, crafts and a variety of vendors — including NYR Organics, H2O at Home, The Design Grove, Art of Sand, Over Home Alpacas, Deb’s Stone and River Glass, Moonstone Holistic, Origami Owl, Bee Positive Honey, All 4 Paws Rescue and Handmade Hive.
There will be two very different but equally attractive ethnic festivals this weekend at Penn’s Landing (Delaware Avenue, Philadelphia, 215-922-2FUN, www.delawareriverevents.com). Both of the free festivals deal with Indians — but not the Native American kind.
West Indian or East Indian — both will be featured this weekend. Penn’s Landing will host the 22nd annual Festival of India on August 20 and the 30th Annual Caribbean Festival on August 21.
The Festival of India, which is sponsored by the Council of Indian Organizations of Greater Philadelphia, is a festive event that features a day full of food, music, dancing and crafts.
The event, which runs from 1-6 p.m., will host a variety of vendors who will be selling a wide array of traditional Indian arts and crafts including clothes, jewelry, music, and other cultural items. Traditional Mahandi work (artistic design) will be available to be done on both hands and feet. Mahandi or hands painting is an old Indian custom still have been practiced by most of the Indian women.
A wide selection of food items from both North and South India will be available for purchase, including such taste treats as tandoori chicken, tikka masala, kolkata rasgulla, gujarati dohkla, chennai idli, korma and an array of Indian breads including chapatti, poori and nan. The festival will run from 1-6 p.m.
Sunday’s festival is a celebration of the culture of 14 Caribbean Islands. The event, which runs from noon-8 p.m., features live island entertainment including drumming, dancing and music.
As always, the festival will have cultural booths where people can get information about the islands of the Caribbean. There will also be a marketplace with vendors selling Caribbean arts and crafts, fashion items and souvenirs.
Island cuisine will be well represented with a number of vendors offering Caribbean delicacies such as Jamaican jerk-chicken and hard-dough bread, escovitched fish and festival cakes, codfish fritters, Jamaican Patties, curried goat and rice & peas.
There is also a festival this weekend honoring the Indians of North America.
On August 20 and 21, the Museum of Indian Culture (2825 Fish Hatchery Road, Allentown, 610-797-2121, http://museumofindianculture.org) is hosting the 2016 Roasting Ears of Corn Festival.
The event, which is Eastern Pennsylvania’s oldest American Indian festival, is a showcase for American Indian drumming, singing, dancing and food.
Visitors can watch demonstrations of Native American cooking, flintknapping and arrow making, experience throwing a tomahawk or see what it’s like using an atlatl (spear thrower). There will be a special crafts area for kids where they can make sand art pictures and weave dreamcatchers.
The festival features a wide array of Native American entertainment. This year’s featured performers are Arvel Bird and Shelley Morningsong.
Other live music and dance performances include “Youngblood Singers,” “White Buffalo Singers,” Aztec Fire Dancing by the Salinas Family from Mexico City, champion hoop dancer Katrina Fisher, and American Indian dancers, singers and performers from all over Canada and the U.S.
This year’s Master of Ceremonies will be George Stonefish, a Delaware from Canada. Featured dancers will include head man Cody Coe (Dakota Sioux/Ute) and head woman Katy Isennock (Lakota Sioux).
Festival attendees will be able to shop at the Marketplace for Native American jewelry, fine arts, and clothing. There will also be food vendors with Indian burgers, frybread, buffalo stew, Indian tacos and fire-roasted corn.
Tickets for the festival are $8 for adults, $5 for seniors (age 62 and older) and youth (age 8-17) and free for children (age seven and under).
On August 22, Alapocas Run State Park (1914 West Park Drive, Wilmington, Delaware, 302-577-1164, http://www.destateparks.com/park/alapocas-run/index.asp) will host the 2015 Pawpaw Folk Festival.
Visitors are invited to come to the park’s Blue Ball Barn for a day of music, storytelling, “down home” food, folk artists and Pawpaw tasting.
All-day activities will be presented by First State Heritage Park (18th– Century Artifacts),
Willis Phelps (Blacksmithing), New Castle County Master Gardeners (Home Gardening Information), North American Pawpaw Growers Association (Pawpaw Information), Auburn Heights Preserve (Steam Cars), Brandywine Zoo (traveling zoo), and Friends of Wilmington Parks (Pawpaw Tasting).
Live entertainment will be performed by Megan Knight, Jessica Graae, Tater Patch, Simple Gifts, and Saul Broudy.
The free event will run from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the park which is located just off Route 202 a few miles south of the Pennsylvania-Delaware state line.
If you’re in the mood for a lot of music this weekend, then you should head north — to Old Pool Farm in Schwenksville to check out the 2015 Philadelphia Folk Festival (Old Pool Farm, Schwenksville, 800-556-FOLK, www.pfs.org).
This Philadelphia Folk Festival is a music festival that is on a plateau all its own. Now in its 55th year, the festival continues to evolve with the times and, at the same time, maintain its traditional vibe. There is no other festival in the country quite like the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
Another good option for live music in the area this weekend is the Lanchester Fiddlers Picnic (Landis Woodland Preserve at 610 Zion Hill Road, West Sadsbury Township, 610-857-5969, www.westsadsburytwp.org).
Musicians are invited to bring their instruments and voices to the Fifth Annual Lanchester Fiddlers Picnic, which will be held at the nature site near Atglen from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on August 20.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature stage performances, informal jam sessions and hayrides — and an opportunity to see the preserve. The Landis Woodland Preserve is only open for special events such as Civil War reenactments and the annual Lanchester Community Days in September.
This Saturday, people are invited to bring lawn chairs, blankets or picnics. Food vendors will be on hand with a variety of picnic offerings. There is no admission fee but there will be a parking fee of $5.
The 40th Street Summer Series, which is co-produced by University City District, the University of Pennsylvania, and The Rotunda, has returned to the area behind the Walnut Street Library (40th and Poplar streets, Philadelphia, www.universitycity.org/40th-street-summer-series) with free monthly concerts.
All concerts take place on the green behind the library between Walnut and Poplar streets. The music will begin at 6 p.m. with other activities kicking off at 5 p.m. Admission is free. The remaining concert dates are August 20 and September 17.
On August 20, The Liberian Women’s Chorus for Change will be the headline act. Featuring singers, dancers and musicians from Liberia, the company performs music that is intended to encourage women to make their voices heard. Modero Dance Company, which features traditional and modern Indonesian dance, will be the opener.
On September 17, the performance will feature Dr. Rennie Harris’ RHAW, a dance group for youths training for Rennie Harris Puremovement. The company will perform “Campbell Locking,” “Popping and Boogaloo,” “B-Boy/Girl,” “House” and hip hop dance sequences. The opening act will be Kalamandir Dance Company, a contemporary troupe that performs classical Indian dance.
The 40th Street Summer Series will also feature juggling, face painting and fire dancing, along with free samples from Ben & Jerry’s and Honeygrow.
A special event that is guaranteed to appeal to kids is “Pirate Day at The Fort,” which is scheduled for August 20 at Fort Mifflin (Fort Mifflin and Hog Island roads, Philadelphia, 215-685-4167, www.fortmifflin.us).
The event, which is billed as “Fort Mifflin’s Annual Swashbuckling Spectacle” will look at the history of piracy on the Delaware River when a new band of pirates occupy Mud Island from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Fort Mifflin was initially built to protect Philadelphia from river pirates in the late 1700s and this event sheds light on the activity at the fort during that era,
Visitors can enjoy a scavenger hunt, take a guided tour, dig for treasure and take part in a drill with wooden muskets. They can also participate in lessons to talk like pirate and listen to roar of a cannon being fired.
There will be skirmishes featuring pirates battling the soldiers at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Also featured will be live music performances by the Sea Dogs.
General admission tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for veterans or students under 12. Admission is free for active duty military and active duty families (ID required) and children under 5.
The focus will be on beads at a special event this weekend at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center (100 Station Avenue, Oaks, 610-323-3263, www.beadfest.com). From August 19-21, the expo hall near Valley Forge National Park is hosting Bead Fest — an event that claims to be the largest bead and jewelry show on the East Coast.
The ambitious annual event, which is billed as a bead and jewelry extravaganza, will feature hands-on jewelry making classes, informative seminars, beading competitions and a large vendors’ area where visitors can purchase everything from beading supplies to hand-crafted jewelry.
Bead Fest will have close to 150 booths and a wide array of workshops which will be presented by experts in the bead and jewelry fields.
A number of special techniques will be demonstrated, including wire knitting, design, wire and beads, bead crocheting, wire weaving, bead stitching, lampworking, metal clay, chain maille, wire and metal, kiln fusing, metalsmithing, bead stringing and wire wrapping.
Tickets for Bead Fest — $15 for a weekend pass — are available only at the door.
For an annual event with a completely different vibe, head west to Lancaster County this weekend.
The Rough and Tumble Engineers Historical Association’s annual Thresherman’s Reunion, which is billed as “The Most Complete Steam & Gas Show in the East,” has become a cherished tradition in Pennsylvania Dutch country. It is not only a “complete show,” it is an old show — one of the oldest continually running events in the state.
This year’s Thresherman’s Reunion, which is being held August 19 and 20 at the Rough and Tumble site (4977 Lincoln Highway East, Kinzers, 717-442-4249,
www.roughandtumble.org), is the 68th annual staging of the event. The main focus this year is on “Alamo & Empire Products.”
The daily schedule starts with breakfast at 7 a.m. at the R&T Multi-Purpose. The day’s activities include a saw mill in operation, a “Pageant of Threshing”, a shingle mill in operation, a “Parade of Power” and threshing machine demonstrations.
There will also be displays featuring steam traction engines, antique tractors, threshing machines, Hit & Miss Gas engines, two steam railroads, shingle mill, large gas engines, model engines, saw mill, barker fan, stone crusher, antique cars, stationary bailers, antique wagons and the “Stationary Steam Engine Museum”.
Video link for the Reunion — https://youtu.be/WECWMP5vNIU.
Live entertainment will be provided on August 20 by The Summit Hill Band. Daily tickets for the Reunion are $10 for adults and $5 for children (ages 6-12).
On August 15, the 24th Annual Postcard Expo will be held at the Farm & Home Center (1383 Arcadia Road, Lancaster, 717-413-6882). The event, which is sponsored by the Lancaster County Postcard Club, will have 25 dealers who will be buying and selling postcards from all eras and all locations.
The Expo, which is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., will also feature several outstanding postcard exhibits along with a variety of food and beverage vendors. Admission is $2.50.
The Farm & Home Center will also host the K2 Collectibles Sunday Stamp Show on August 16. The popular collectors’ event will run from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
