Kutztown Historical Society held their 34th annual Holiday Festival on Nov. 14, the biggest event the Historical Society holds on a yearly basis as well as one of their biggest fundraiser.
“This is our big annual event, it’s mostly a fundraiser for the organization,” Brendan Strasser, the librarian for the Historical Society, said. “We have a lot of expenses here with the building, the heat, and the electricity. We’re entirely funded internally; we don’t get grants or anything like that. So this is our big fundraising event of the year.”
The organization also hopes to attract new members through the event.
“The event also helps to hopefully promote the organization to get new members. We have an aging membership so we want to do what we can to attract new members into the organization, too,” said Strasser.
This year being the 34th year, the event is well established. Even though it may grow in vendor size, it hasn’t changed much traditionally and has become a local tradition for many Kutztownians.
“I don’t know if it has changed a whole lot. It’s grown. It seems to keep getting bigger. We have more venders this year than we’ve ever had. It’s been pretty consistent. I remember coming here in high school to some of the pretty early ones and it’s stayed pretty much the same actually. It’s nice, it’s become a tradition. We have a lot of people coming back year after year. They mark this in their calendar, like we’re going to see them on the second Saturday of November every year. Not just from Kutztown, people drive in from Reading, Allentown, it’s sort of like old home week around here,” said Strasser.
Many of the people who come to the event have been coming for years and consider this event an important holiday tradition. They also just enjoy the festival for numerous reasons.
Jonah Arndt, resident of Kutztown, said, “It’s a big holiday tradition, that I’ve been doing since I was small. It’s a big tradition for almost everyone who attends, and I think it’s a lot of the atmosphere. Just knowing people, the fact that it’s a Kutztown community area that we’ve [Kutztown community] done so much here. A lot of people have history with the area. All the artisan are local, or have came from here [Kutztown] originally. Some just want to bring their grandchildren or children to show them this old building that has so many memories throughout the years.”
Tracy Moyer, resident of Shillington, said, “I would say it’s a tradition, we [Moyer and husband] try to come every year, but sometimes I have to work this weekend. I enjoy the event because of the uniqueness of the crafts and the Christmas feel about the festival. It’s also an opportunity to see people we [Moyer and husband] haven’t seen in a while and catching up a bit.”
Strasser said the 34th annual Kutztown Historical Society’s Holiday Festival was a roaring success since it was their biggest festival yet with the most vendors, people just keep coming back.
