Cambria County Arts and Heritage Festival
Cambria County Arts and Heritage Festival is a unique gathering of the old and the modern. Country Fox strolled through on Sunday, September 12th. Haven’t visited this wonderful event before? Read on to find out why you should next year.
Laurel Highlands Historical Village
The Laurel Highlands Historical Village is a non-profit founded in 2003. They formed with the idea of promoting the appreciation and understanding of the cultural heritage and ethnic diversity of the Laurel Highlands area.
The Laurel Highlands Historical Village has a goal. The goal is to create and provide programs to help understand our local history. This will help us appreciate the accomplishments of our ancestors.
With each passing day our history is slipping away, being lost to time. The Laurel Highlands Historical Village hopes to preserve the customs, traditions and practices of our ancestors.
The Cambria County Arts and Heritage Festival is one of their projects to bring our history and past to our present. Interested in finding out more about the Laurel Highlands Historical Village? Visit their website here.
Vendors
As with any festival or event, there were vendors. All sorts of creative people were hawking their wares. Chainsaw carvings, pumpkins, jewelry, honey, and soaps to only name a few.
Country Fox purchased a chainsaw carved owl. Very cute!
Food vendors were all over the site offering a wide variety of food. Vendors offering historical information could be found too.
History Comes Alive
There were two living history encampments. The upper level of the park hosted the Civil War encampment. Below them was found the Society for Creative Anachronism.
Civil War Encampment
The encampment hosted a troop from Virginia and a troop from Pennsylvania. There were also Union and Confederate surgeons at hand to help tend to the wounded.
Civil War reenactors are very authentic. These idividuals spend time researching. We spent over half an hour talking to the Civil War surgeons. Most of the items they had were reproductions. However, a few pieces were authentic.
They reviewed common medical practices of the day. What medications were used and why they were used. They even went over medical instruments and their uses. All in all, it was quite interesting.
During the weekend, the North and the South would have demonstrations on their marked off battlefield.
Society for Creative Anachronism
This is a group of people researching and recreating pre-seventeenth century life. This includes learned skills, arts, combat and culture. Interested in learning more about the society as a whole? Visit their page here.
St. Swithins Bog was the group representing the Society for Creative Anchronism. In this area visitors could find heavy weapons combat, archery, throwing weapons, and fencing.
There were also craftspeople. One sold Viking Wire Knit or Weaving. The jewelry is amazing. I bought a pair of earings. Another had ceramic tiles for sale. Both vendors learned centuries old methods to produce these crafts. Interested in learning more about St. Swithins Bog? Follow them on Facebook here.
Other Items of Interest
There was also antique cars on display. Train rides and hay rides were available. Musicians played all day Saturday and Sunday. Each day had a different set of musicans.
One area of interest that we unfortunely missed was the Unexplained Events in Pennsylvania. This occured both Saturday and Sunday. It featured some local paranormal researchers. Stan Gordon, Ed Kelemen and Patty Wilson discussed Big Foot, U.F.O.’s and more.
In Conclusion
Interested in keeping up with the Cambria County Arts and Heritage Festival for next year? Follow them on Facebook here. The Cambria County Arts and Heritage Festival is hosted at Duman Lake. Read my blog about Duman Lake here.
Other local events that may be of interest are Allegheny Regional Festival of Books is Saturday September 18th. And don’t forget Ebensburg’s Potato Fest is Saturday September 25th. Rembember there is still time to visit your local farmers markets too.