Local festival attendance swells at Arts Fest, People’s Choice. See the data
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- The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts drew about 163,700 visitors over five days.
- People’s Choice returned to Boalsburg and recorded 17,200 total visits.
- The week produced a 36% increase in total lodging demand.
A busy week chock-full of arts festivals delivered strong tourism numbers in Centre County.
No festival held the weekend of July 11 attracted more people than the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, which drew roughly 163,700 total visits to downtown State College over its five-day run, according to data from the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau. But it was the People’s Choice Festival of Pennsylvania that saw the largest gains over 2025, perhaps in part due to a long-awaited return to its old stomping grounds.
People’s Choice attracted 17,200 total visits this year, marking a gargantuan 760% increase over 2025’s attendance involving 2,000 visits, HVAB officials said. Nearly 16,000 unique visitors spent at least one day at the festival as it returned to the Pennsylvania Military Museum’s grounds in Boalsburg from July 9-12.
Eric Engelbarts, the newly appointed president and CEO of the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, said events in the area thrived last week as some challenges — including localized flooding and a fraternity fire on Penn State’s campus — threatened to spoil plans.
“The wonderful work that each one of these festivals do requires 24/7, year-round effort and planning,” Engelbarts said. “Seeing these visitation numbers rise is the cherry on top for everyone involved.”
Arts Fest produced a 7% increase in unique visitors over the festival weekend and an 8% jump in total visits, tracked by HVAB officials using software that monitors visitor movements through cell phone data. Roughly 60% of the festival’s 96,100 unique attendees traveled more than 50 miles to reach State College.
Conversely, People’s Choice attracted a far more local audience as it returned to its longtime home in Boalsburg following a few years at the Grange Park in Centre Hall, where just 1,100 people visited in 2025, according to HVAB officials. Data collected by the tourism agency shows about 80% of visitors to this summer’s festival were considered local, or having traveling fewer than 50 miles.
“If you put all of this work into it [as the festival moves], you wonder if it’s going to help,” Engelbarts said. “It’s so great to see all that time and effort made a difference.”
Art in the Orchard, another art-focused event held July 9-11 at Way Fruit Farm in Port Matilda, attracted about 4,300 visitors, nearly matching attendance from 2025.
The stretch of art festivals in the State College area, dubbed by HVAB as the “Big Arts Week,” saw a 36% rise in total lodging demand, measured by the number of hotel rooms booked. That rise was no doubt fueled by increased festival attendance and a larger supply of rooms thanks to new hotels opening along Benner Pike in Bellefonte in the last year.
People’s Choice’s long-awaited return to Boalsburg was met by wide praise from guests and artists alike. The move, announced in February, was made possible by coordinated planning with the Pennsylvania Military Museum, HVAB and Harris Township.
Festival co-director John Madison said attendance and engagement had declined since People’s Choice moved to Centre Hall in 2022 following a two-year hiatus, with fewer artists and food vendors signing up each year. At the time, organizers said circumstances made staying at the museum “untenable.”
“Our home is at the Pennsylvania Military Museum,” Madison told the Centre Daily Times in February. “That’s where it started, that’s where it should be, and that’s where the public seems to want it.”
People’s Choice organizers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday regarding this summer’s surge in attendance.
This story was originally published July 18, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
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