A ‘mini craft beverage garden’ is coming to Arts Fest. What to know about the addition of alcohol
Beer, wine and cider are coming to the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, better known simply as “Arts Fest.”
Arts Fest and the Central PA Tasting Trail are working in tandem to set up a short-term gated area in downtown State College that intends to sell alcohol, both for consumption only within that area and to take home in the form of bottles, cans and growlers. No public drinking is permitted outside of the gated area, which will be located within the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza on South Fraser Street.
State College Borough Council unanimously approved the idea Monday night, allowing for a special permit that temporarily allows open containers in certain places. According to Arts Fest executive director Rick Bryant, alcohol will be sold at MLK Plaza from noon to 6:30 p.m. July 14-16.
“This will be a nice addition to the festival,” Bryant said. “Part of the reason for the festival is economic development and, the Tasting Trail, they’re all local businesses. We’re proud of our Centre County products here, and we’re delighted to show them off.”
Arts Fest runs from July 13-17, and this summer marks the return of the longtime festival after a two-year absence due to the COVID pandemic. Alcohol has not been previously served there, although the Central PA Tasting Trail often sold “passports” at the fest that rewarded purchasers for visiting Centre County’s craft beverage producers.
Celesta Powell, managing director of the Tasting Trail, said the nonprofit’s 14 members all intend to participate, and they’ll likely stagger appearances — with several different businesses each day — due to the limited space. A schedule of appearances will be announced in the coming weeks on the social media of both Arts Fest and the Tasting Trail.
Powell termed the setup a “mini craft beverage garden.”
“For our members, because we’re located all over Centre County, the visibility of being down in the Central PA Arts Fest is just really nice for us to let people know what products there are here in the county,” Powell added. “The visibility at the Arts Fest is really important for us.”
Based on the borough ordinance, spirits still cannot be served on the premises, unlike beer, cider and wine. It was not immediately known if bottles of spirits could still be purchased there to take home, however, as the borough was unable to respond prior to publication.
Bryant and Powell said a lot of planning remains for the event, as they wanted to first see if borough council would approve their request before getting too far ahead of themselves. Now that council has, the two corroborators intend to nail down more specifics in the coming weeks.
For now, customers will have to show ID before receiving a wristband and entering the gated area of MLK Plaza. The local businesses will also take great care in not overserving people, Powell said, since their licenses are on the line.
It’s not yet known what the capacity is or exactly what the setup might look like, although Bryant expected more tables and chairs to be added.
Powell intimated this was a long time coming, as the Central PA Tasting Trail has wanted to do this for years. It didn’t previously broach the subject, in part, because it wasn’t sure how such a move might be received. But borough council passed an ordinance allowing for such exceptions in 2017, alcohol started appearing at local farmers markets, and the pandemic helped loosen some alcohol-related laws — such as cocktails-to-go — that made organizers think now was the right time to pursue the change.
“There’s a really big difference between a ‘quality’ pour and a ‘quantity’ pour,” Powell added. “We are ‘quality.’ So we are intent on making it a place that you’re going to be able to sit down, maybe have some sort of entertainment or something there to keep you hanging out — and that you’re enjoying what we have to offer, not racing through things thinking it’s a contest. So that’s really our focus.
“And I think we’ll be very mindful of what the borough expects from us because we want to do it again.”
The Central PA Tasting Trail includes the following members: Axemann Brewery, Barrel 21 Distillery, Big Spring Spirits, Elk Creek Cafe + Aleworks, Good Intent Cidery, Happy Valley Vineyard & Winery, J.L. Farm & Cidery 814 Cider Works, Keewaydin Cider Mill, Mt. Nittany Vineyard & Winery, Otto’s Pub And Brewery, Pisano Winery, Robin Hood Brewing Co., Seven Mountains Wine Cellars and University Wine Company.
Arts Fest, which has run (nearly) annually since 1967, features several hundred artists and vendors selling their wares throughout downtown State College and on Penn State’s University Park campus. The event routinely draws about 125,000 visitors every year.
For more information and future updates, go to arts-festival.com and centralpatastingtrail.com.
