Live Music and Folklife Demonstrations Headline the Fun at Heemet Fescht 2024

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Heemet Fescht returns 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center. Heemet Fescht features live music in the barnyard, traditional crafts, folklife demonstrations, hearth-cooking, live animals, children’s activities and more.

Indulge your interest in regional folk culture at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center’s Heemet Fescht 2024: “a celebration of the harvest and Pennsylvania Dutch farm life.” Heemet (pronounced HAY-met) means “home” in Pennsylvania Dutch. Located on the historic Sharadin Farmstead, 22 Luckenbill Road, Kutztown, the event is free, fun and educational for the whole family.

Enjoy some of the region’s finest in traditional music in the barnyard featuring local Berks County folk musicians Mike and Linda Hertzog, Days of Old and Dave Kline. Join Dr. William Donner in the schoolhouse to learn about Pennsylvania Dutch culture and education and have your questions about the culture answered.

Traditional artisans from the Reading-Berks Chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen will share their expertise in fine crafts in the historic log cabins on site, along with folklife demonstrators in woodworking, tin smithing, blacksmithing and more throughout the farm. Learn about barn stars and hex signs with preeminent painter Eric Claypoole, who has painted more than 100 barns in his career and will be demonstrating his traditional barn art. Explore the farm as demonstrators present their trades and crafts, from woodworking to blacksmithing, a working tinsmith shop to spinning and more.

Grab lunch at Delicious Dogs and More, where you’ll find hot dogs, hamburgers and soft pretzels, or savor a homemade smoothie or a coffee from Perk Up Food Truck.

Visit the Sharadin Farmhouse, where Becky Manley will demonstrate open-hearth regional cooking in the kitchen featuring traditional Pennsylvania Dutch food. Be sure to stop by the summer kitchen to taste Terry Berger’s sugar cookies baked in a wood stove.

Children can explore autumn craft activities including pumpkin painting and corn dolls. Puddin Heartland’s extraordinary potbellied pigs will also delight visitors of all ages. Enjoy a hayride around the farm, starting behind the barn.

Pick up a copy of the newest volume of the Heritage Center’s Annual Publication Series, “Sauer’s Herbal Cures: America’s First Book of Botanical Healing,” by William Woys Weaver, hot off the press and available the Heritage Center bookstand.

Don’t forget to visit our new headquarters at the DeLight E. Breidegam Building to explore our featured exhibition “Carved from our Roots: Selected Works of Marshall D. Rumbaugh.”

For more information, follow PGCHC on Facebook and Instagram, visit www.pagerman.org/heemet-fescht or call 610-683-1589.