'Rejuvenated' Mt. Pleasant Glass & Ethnic Festival returns with surprise features
The pandemic year cancellation wasn’t necessarily all bad for the Mt. Pleasant Glass & Ethnic Festival.
“Having a year off got us rejuvenated,” said co-director Jeff Landy. “Everybody’s been working hard, and we’re excited to be back.”
The annual street festival, celebrating the area’s glass-making history and diverse ethnic heritage, is set for 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday. Activities are centered around the intersection of Washington and Diamond streets in the borough’s downtown area.
Visitors will find a few new features this year, Landy said.
Among those will be a Mexican street corn vendor, glassblowers from Keystone College near Scranton and a nightly launch of colorful balloons.
“There will be some surprises each night that we’re not going to reveal, because we want them to be surprises,” Landy said.
Visitors also will find the typical features they’ve come to love over the years, he said — queen pageant at 11 a.m. Saturday on the Gazebo stage, a parade at 2 p.m. Saturday along Main Street, and the festival-ending fireworks finale at 7:30 p.m. Sunday (weather permitting).
Celebrating Mt. Pleasant’s glass-making heritage, there will be glass cutting and engraving demonstrations by master glass-cutter Peter O’Rourke and glass-blowing and torch work by Dan Sullivan.
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About 120 arts, crafts and merchandise vendors will be present, including those selling bottles, art glass, stained glass and stepping stones.
Entertainment is scheduled on the Gazebo and Washington Street stages and in the Old Town area, with other performers strolling the midway. On the schedule are music in various genres, contests, dance, gymnastics, pumpkin carving and an animal act.
For young festival-goers, there will be rides, games, crafts, special entertainment, a play area and petting zoo. Families also can join a parade of decorated strollers at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Gazebo.
Landy noted that free shuttle service will be available, courtesy of DMJ Transportation. Shuttles will take passengers to the festival area from the Walmart in the Summit Ridge Plaza and from the former Lenox Factory Outlet along Route 31 east of the borough.
Pets are not allowed in the festival area.
Festival map, entertainment and shuttle schedules and more information are available at mtpleasantglassandethnicfestival.com.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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