It’s been almost 50 years since Don Frantz spearheaded the first Lebanon Valley College Spring Arts Festival.
If you go…
Concert on Friday April 26 @ Arnold Sports Center: Doors open at 7pm, music starts at 8pm, headliner at 9pm. Free for LVC students and children 12 & under, $5 for everyone else.
Day Festival on Sunday April 28 @ Sheridan Ave: 11am to 5pm, free to enter.
“A community started showing up that never came before,” explained Frantz to us of his seventies-era experience organizing the festival at LVC. “There was a sense on festival day that people were in the same space that wouldn’t have normally been together.”
This year’s ValleyFest maintains the inclusive tradition established by Frantz, a Hummelstown native, back when Carole King, the Bee Gees, and Rod Stewart topped the charts (Frantz remembers singing ‘Here Comes the Sun’ at dawn on the roof of the now-gone Saylor Hall the day of the first festival). The music that first year included acoustic and classical, and a fair share of Peter, Paul and Mary and Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Although the concept has been tweaked and the festival made bigger since Frantz’s days, it continues to be a reason for people who are not attending Valley to come to Valley.
Seeing the event thrive to this day pleases him enormously, even as he watches from halfway around the world while splitting time between Beijing and NYC.
Doors to this year’s ValleyFest concert within the Arnold Sports Center open at 7pm on Friday, with no admission fee for LVC students and children 12 & under, and a $5 admission fee for everyone else. Sam Machin & Clovadine will open for Go Go Gadjet with music starting at 8pm and Go Go appearing at 9pm. No alcohol will be served at the concert.
Go Go Gadjet is a well-known Central PA band, in part due to its 11 year run performing at Penn State THON. After dabbling with national acts in years past, LVC organizers say they wanted to do something more regional and, yes, more of a cover band to counteract the unpredictable attendance that comes with most musical artists. It was actually Go Go’s connection to THON that put the band on LVC’s radar. Here’s a clip of the band performing the final song at THON in 2016.
On Sunday, ValleyFest 2019 will continue with the Day Festival portion going from 11am to 5pm on Annville’s Sheridan Ave. There will also be inflatables, balloons, face painting, and other activities for children. Hershey Vineyards and Brewery will be there too from 11am to 2pm on the patio of the Allan W. Mund College Center.
Both event’s are rain or shine. Find the full craft and food vendor list for Sunday below.
Craft Vendors
- Entchouki
- Freckled Robin
- Fresh Prints of Lancaster
- Jayne’s Paintings
- Jody’s Jewelry and Crafts
- Keeping It Wool
- Limitless Expressions
- Lularoe
- Moses Family Jerky
- Sea Glass Jewelry by Nora
- Soul & Seam Vintage
- Strawberry Blonde Bands
- Thirty-One Gifts
Food Vendors
- 717 Tacos
- Brickers Famous French Fries
- Get Smok’D BBQ
- Kona Ice
- Mad Dash Food Truck
- Makin’ Whoopie Pies
- My Pop’s Place
- Penny’s
- Philadelphia Hoagie Co. on the Roll
- Shorty’s Funnel Cakes
- Soul Burrito
- The Perk Up Truck
- Triple Ceez Chicken Wingz
- Uncle Paul’s Stuffed Pretzels
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