This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
PETERSBURG — Shaver’s Creek is gearing up for the first harvest of the year with tickets on sale soon for the 2025 Maple Harvest Festival.
The annual event — scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 22 and Sunday, March 23 —is a well-loved community tradition featuring maple sugaring demonstrations, live music, pancakes with maple syrup, wildlife programs and more.
“The festival is such a special way to welcome and celebrate the arrival of spring,” Laurie McLaughlin, Shaver’s Creek program director who oversees the festival, said. “It brings people together and helps to connect the community to the natural world and Shaver’s Creek.”
The tickets will go on sale at noon on Wednesday, Feb. 12, on Shaver’s Creek’s website at shaverscreek.org/public-programs-and-events/maple-harvest-festival. Shaver’s Creek recommended getting your tickets as soon as possible as they typically sell out fast.
Timed-entry tickets are required to attend the festival and/or to visit Shaver’s Creek on those days and must be purchased online prior to the event.
The Maple Harvest Festival made its debut at Shaver’s Creek in 1984, starting off as a small group of maple syrup enthusiasts. More than 1,725 visitors attended last year’s 40th-anniversary celebration, joining 165 volunteers, 20 students and 45 staff members to eat 6,900 pancakes and 3,100 sausages over the course of the event.
Participants in this year’s Maple Harvest Festival can look forward to learning how to identify and tap sugar maple trees and visit the Sugar Shack to watch the sap be turned into syrup, enjoy live music, watch costumed instructors demonstrate sugaring techniques used by Indigenous tribes and farmers, see live animal programs to learn about Shaver’s Creek’s resident wildlife, take a stroll through the new Aerie Gardens, scale the climbing wall from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on both days of the festival and of course, enjoy tasty maple syrup.
Shaver’s Creek has been part of the community since 1976. Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, the nature center offers educational and recreational activity opportunities, trails, conservation education and much more to the community.
