‘Big fan of it being back.’ People’s Choice Festival returns home to Boalsburg

For the first time in seven years, the People’s Choice Festival has returned to Boalsburg, bringing with it over 240 artists, craft merchants, makers and food stands, and many people — vendors and visitors alike — are glad it’s back.

The event, which is widely recognized as one of Centre County’s premier summer festivals, started Thursday and will take place through Sunday on the flat, grassy area in front of the Pennsylvania Military Museum, at 51 Boal Ave. From 2022 to 2025, the festival was held at the Grange Park in Centre Hall, and before that, it was called off for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making 2019 the last year that People’s Choice was held in Boalsburg.

When it was announced in February that the festival would be returning to its original site, event co-director John Madison told the Centre Daily Times that attendance and engagement had declined at the Penns Valley location, and that the return to the museum felt like a return to “our home.”

Madison added then that with the return to Boalsburg, the festival would be “where it should be,” and many attendees and vendors at the event Thursday morning agreed.

“I love Boalsburg and I love having the fair back here, it’s a great location,” Bellefonte resident Kelly Wellington said. “It’s a bit closer, and I do feel like it’s a bit of a nostalgia thing too. It has always been here, and I’m glad that it’s back.”

Rachel Hall, a former Snow Shoe resident who currently lives in State College, has attended the fair for years and also said that the return to Boalsburg has made visiting “a lot more convenient.”

Tony DeLuca, a Port Matilda resident, has been visiting the People’s Choice Festival for decades, and said that while he didn’t mind the Grange Park location, Boalsburg is his preference.

“I’m a big fan of it being back here, mainly due to convenience more than anything else,” DeLuca said. “We liked the Grange, don’t get me wrong, but it also seems like there are more artists here this year compared to last. It looks like they made the layout tighter to fit in more booths. They aren’t as separated, and a lot of the old artists are back too — and there seems to be a lot of new ones too.”

While some vendors said Thursday morning it’s too early to make a determination on how business will be impacted by the move, others who’ve experienced both locations were glad to be back. That includes Georgie LeHoop, a drummer-turned-artist haling from St. Clair, Schuylkill County, who makes paintings using a variety of different drumsticks.

“I’ve been doing this a lot of years, and I’ve done it here before, and I’ve also done it [at Grange Park], and both places were good, but I like this one better,” LeHoop said. “The main road runs right by us here, so you can see us pretty plain and clearly, and it helps us vendors get a bit more foot traffic.”

In addition to seasoned veterans of the People’s Choice Festival, there were also some people attending the event Thursday for the very first time, like Bellefonte resident Judy Rearick, who said she was having a “really, really good time” at the festival.

Ben Masters, the Marysville-based owner of Crank Therapy — a business selling keychains, belts, dog leashes, pouches and more out of recycled bicycle inner tubes — is also attending his first-ever People’s Choice Festival, and is looking forward to the days ahead.

“I mean, it’s only been going on for about an hour, and I’ve already had a great time linking up with lots of fun folks, and I think the weather’s going to be pretty nice this weekend as well,” Masters said. “I’m just really stoked. This is the furthest away that I’ve gone for in an event, this is my first time to State College and this is my first four-day event, so I’m just really happy to be here.”

Masters’ “Schwinger,” or the home-made, bicycle petal-powered sewing machine crafted entirely from a 1954 Singer sewing machine, a 1979 Schwinn exercise bike and other parts, was drawing plenty of attention from festivalgoers on Thursday.

“I put the ‘Schwinger’ together using a variety of bicycle parts, and I actually have three of them — I just take this one around to events to show people how I sew everything,” Master said. “It’s a great way to draw people in and show them my upcycled art, and that I make mostly all of it from bicycle power.”

The People’s Choice Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Parking for the event typically costs $10, but during dinner hours (from 5-7 p.m.) parking is free.

More information on the People’s Choice Festival can be found on at www.peopleschoicefestival.com and on the event’s Facebook page.