The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts kicked off its 57th year on Wednesday with a day dedicated to entertainment, activities and art for kids in downtown State College and on the Penn State campus.
As usual, Children and Youth Day also gave young artisans the chance to showcase and sell their creations with a sidewalk sale of their own. A festival-record 280 artists and crafters lined South Allen Street from Highland Alley to Fairmount Avenue.
The Children and Youth Sidewalk Sale is open to artists aged 8 to 18 who live or have relatives living in Centre County and six bordering counties.
Among the artists participating for the first time was 8-year-old Rhenleigh Weikel, of Lock Haven, who sold her drawings, paintings and handcrafted earrings. Rhenleigh has been honing her crafts since she started drawing at age 3 and making earrings at 5.
She had sold several items by 1 p.m. and was enjoying the experience.
“I like how there’s so many people,” she said.
Nearby, 9-year-old Claire Roy and 11-year-old Ellie Roy, of State College, were also taking part in the sale for the first time with their creative and colorful wands.
“We made wands because we wanted to do something that boys and girls would both like and enjoy and hang out with together,” Ellie said. “We thought that would be a really good thing to do.”
They seemed to be right, with Ellie saying they had sold “a lot” of wands by early afternoon, with shopper particularly interested in ones with streaming ribbons.
Ellie expects they’ll be back at the sale next year.
“It’s been enjoyable, and it’s been fun seeing people I know from around town,” she said.
Danny Wolf and Jeremiah Manno were part of a group booth selling their fish and wildlife paintings, along with walking sticks. The 15-year-olds from State College were participating in the sale for the second consecutive year.
Danny works in water colors and splatter paints, while Jeremiah does water colors and acrylics.
“I also did a couple styles of art where I pour coffee on a piece of paper and I do pen and ink on top of it,” Jeremiah said.
Their booth was in a different location than last year, and Danny said sales were strong.
“It’s been amazing,” he said. “It’s a little different location from last year so it’s a different atmosphere. We’ve been selling a lot of paintings, not as many walking sticks but it’s still making a lot of money.”
Miri McLeod was selling her digital art pieces for the first time at the festival. A 15-year-old from Charlottesville, Virginia, Miri was born in State College, where her father and stepmother still live.
She’s been making digital art for three or four years.
“The prints that I didn’t expect to sell the best sold the best, so that was interesting. It’s been pretty good,” she said.
Miri, who also entertained shoppers by playing ukulele and singing, said she enjoyed her first experience in the sidewalk sale.
“Just being able to interact with people and seeing the pure glee on everyone’s faces as they walk by, it’s truly nice,” she said.
She jokingly added that she also enjoyed “not having to walk” on what was a hot and humid afternoon.
Plenty of people were walking, though, and many took advantage of the misting tunnel and dumping water buckets that annually cool off visitors on Allen Street.
There was much to take in throughout the day. The Allen Street stage and Old Main Lawn bandshell featured music and dance performances for and by kids. Youngsters could meet State College police officers, explore and Alpha Fire Company truck and learn about recycling from Jabebo Studio and the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority.
On campus around Old Main, a variety of Penn State departments and organizations hosted creative and educational activities, such as learning about brains, physics or astronomy, a look into Nittany Lion athletics history with the All-Sports Museum, artistic offerings from the Palmer Museum and Center for Arts and Crafts and crafts with a rotating lineup of Penn State Athletes.
The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts continues Thursday through Sunday with more than 300 artists featured in the Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition, continuous entertainment each day, food vendors, a Craft Beverage Expo and more.
Check out our guide to this year’s Arts Festival for details.
