Three Days of Peace, Music, and Art in the Orchard

As long as I can remember, central Pennsylvania has had an arts festival in State College, called the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. The festival typically runs for a few days in the second week of July, and my oldest sister Barb and I would always go.

Then they added a second festival in Boalsburg, the People's Choice Festival; and that gave us even more cool choices. Perhaps even better: a rural one, where there was grass, and shade; a creek to dip your hot and tired toesies in!

Alas, due to Covid, there were no festivals last summer. And this year, they cancelled them too. It all sort of made sense. My sister died two summers ago, in July. After her passing, everything was pretty much cancelled, even Christmas. My sister died and then everything stopped. The whole world stopped.

I admit it made me sad. The "summer things" we all look forward to are part of what gives joy and meaning to our lives. With everything cancelled, it was easy to feel sort of depressed. But then came a new event: Art in the Orchard, at Way Fruit Farm, in Stormstown!

The event features artists/vendors, food trucks, a bunny petting zoo, and live music. Nine different bands will be playing, over a course of three days, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. So when I heard about this, and with it being so close and all (about a mile from our house), I knew I had to go and check it out!

On Thursday morning, it was raining when we left the house to go grocery shopping in town. It cleared long enough for me to walk over to Tudek Park while my husband did the shopping. We'd had bad thunderstorms the night before, with terrifying winds.

After all of that, I wanted to check on the status of "my" white oak tree at Tudek Park. So I walked over, gave it a big smile and a sweet greeting, and then I reached out and touched some of its leaves. "Well done!" I said; "STILL STANDING!!!" You may see "my" wonderful tree, and the community gardens behind it, in the extras.

On the way home, I had my husband drop me off at Way Fruit Farm so that I could visit the Art in the Orchard event; from there, I'd walk home. The fruit farm has lots of apple trees, and there are rows of corn growing between the trees. The ground was muddy from recent rains, but they'd put down some hay to help make it walkable.

There were lots more artist booths than I expected, and a fair number of food trucks, selling everything from French fries to kettle corn, to pulled pork sandwiches. It smelled good. And there was a band playing loudly and enthusiastically from a tiny platform set off against the green fields. I caught the strains of Jessie's Girl as I walked around. Then a Rolling Stones tune.

It was drizzling while I was there, so I had my umbrella. I hoped they wouldn't get bad storms like we did the night before; those vendor tents would be toast in such winds. So it rained a little, but it didn't rain hard, and it was all good. We all went, anyway.

I wanted to be the first to go so that I could take pictures and share them, and maybe get other people interested in going. I wanted to support our local business, Way Fruit Farm, and their big event, and all of the artists and vendors. So as soon as I got home, I posted my photos of Art in the Orchard to our neighborhood Facebook group. "Come on out to the orchard!" I said.

I instantly got lots of likes, possibly even more than the photos people posted of last week's July 4th weekend tractor parade. And there were comments from neighbors about how they'd gotten kettle corn, and it was so good, maybe they should go back for more. And remarks about how lovely it was, and how this ought to be an annual thing now. Will this be the only Art in the Orchard event? Or is it just the first of many? Only time will tell.

I showed my husband my pictures later on in the evening. And he asked, "What? Were people camping in those little tents in the orchard?" And I explained No, those are artists/vendors selling their wares, after having not had such opportunities for far too long.

And I thought about the band playing, about music wafting up among the apple trees, against the green hills, and I got a great big smile in my heart. And I thought of the food trucks, and the people milling about, and the bunnies. "It was an ARTS FESTIVAL," I said; "And Barb would have LOVED it! I hope they do it again next year!"

Here is a song for three days of peace, music, and art in the orchard: Joni Mitchell, with Woodstock.