Philipsburg Heritage Days treats visitors to ‘hometown flavor’

Summer festivals abound in Centre County, but there’s only one where guests are fully immersed in a kind of small-town charm that’s becoming increasingly uncommon. Heritage Days, starting Tuesday, brings families and friends from far and wide to Philipsburg, where, according to chairman Jim Pollock, they find plenty of “Mayberry R.F.D., kick-back, hometown flavor.”

Starting in 1998, the first Philipsburg Heritage Days celebration was a follow-up to the 1997 Philipsburg Bicentennial. Pollock helped organize the bicentennial and, when it was over, decided a similar event was needed every year. Now, the event is still going strong after 20 summers.

“The whole vision behind Heritage Days is to continue to educate people about the history and heritage of our town,” Pollock said. “We’re seeing an influx of new people moving to the area, with new businesses coming here and so forth, and as the older town residents pass away we’re looking at handing that history of our town — and our heritage — down to the people who will be living here and who visit here.”

After 20 years, Pollock said some things have changed, but a lot has stayed the same. “We started out having more local crafters and vendors, and ... a majority of some of the regular vendors have been with us since the beginning. It’s like a big family reunion.”

Even though Heritage Days falls along the same timeline as the Boalsburg People’s Choice Festival and the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, competing for attention doesn’t seem to bother or worry Pollock. He acknowledges that many visitors may pass through and hit all three festivals in a week, and that, at the end of the day, Heritage Days offers something entirely different and unique. One example of this? The huge Heritage Days Grand Parade that takes place on July 15.

“We’re the only one in the three that ... has a parade,” Pollock said. “We have one of the largest parades in central Pennsylvania.” With approximately 180 units marching, spectators are treated to a two-and-a-half-hour show with an array of floats and more than a dozen bands, including several who travel from states away to participate. This year, the Jaffa Shrine of Altoona is even included, with its clowns, mini-cars, mounted patrol and more.

About 22-24,000 attendees are expected, with many planning other events to coincide with the festival.

“There’s five or six class reunions and ... there’s always one or two weddings, and then families have family reunions. So people take their vacation, because it’s right after the Fourth of July, so they’ll come here for the week and see their friends,” Pollock said. “Every backyard has a cook out. The churches are into it, because they have church homecomings, so people come back and visit their families, visit the church. ... It works out really nice.”

“I was born and raised here, so it’s so nice to see all the people come back, and renew (their) friendships. I always want to hear them say, you know, ‘things are getting pretty good here,’ ” Pollock said. “They’re seeing changes and new businesses, and that’s really the theme we want to get out, yhat this is a nice location.”

Heritage Days kicks off at 7 p.m. Tuesday with Vesper Services at Trinity United Methodist Church, followed by community awards for businesses celebrating significant anniversaries. Honorees include two churches — celebrating 135 and 110 years of service — as well as a volunteer fire department marking its 130th anniversary. Throughout the rest of the week, guests enjoy children’s activities; performances of all kinds; a huge variety of food and craft vendors; a 5K on July 15; and, of course, the Grand Parade held at 2 p.m. July 15, followed by a show-stopping Drum and Bugle Corps presentation that evening.

This story was originally published July 6, 2017 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Philipsburg Heritage Days treats visitors to ‘hometown flavor’."