Kutztown German Festival

The Kutztown German Festival, widely known as the Kutztown Folk Festival, is an annual celebration of Pennsylvania Dutch folklife held at the Kutztown Fairgrounds at 15197 Kutztown Road in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Staged each summer around the Independence Day holiday, the festival brings together traditional craftspeople, cooks, musicians, folklorists and performers for nine consecutive days of demonstrations, exhibits and entertainment devoted to the culture of the Pennsylvania Germans, the descendants of German speaking immigrants who settled the region beginning in the late seventeenth century.

The event occupies a large portion of the fairgrounds, with activity spread across open lawns, permanent buildings, tents and pavilions. Visitors move at their own pace between craft displays, kitchen demonstrations, stage performances, exhibit halls and food stands, making the festival as much a walkable outdoor museum as a fair.

History and Background

The Kutztown Folk Festival was established in 1950 by a group of scholars and folklorists associated with the study of Pennsylvania German language and customs. It is frequently described as the oldest continuously operated folklife festival in the United States, and its early organizers helped shape the academic field of folklife studies in America. What began as a modest gathering intended to document and preserve regional traditions grew into one of the best attended cultural events in eastern Pennsylvania.

Berks County, where Kutztown sits, remains one of the historical centers of Pennsylvania Dutch settlement. The dialect, the farm architecture, the foodways and the decorative arts of the region all trace back to those early communities, and the festival was conceived as a way to keep those practices visible and practiced rather than simply archived. Over the decades the program has expanded, but the original emphasis on demonstration and participation has remained: rather than reading about a craft, visitors watch it being done and can often speak directly with the person doing it.

Craft Demonstrations and Folk Art

Traditional crafts form the backbone of the festival. Juried artisans work on site throughout the run of the event, demonstrating trades and techniques that were once part of everyday rural life in southeastern Pennsylvania. Depending on the year, the roster of demonstrators may include:

• Blacksmiths and metalworkers operating forges
• Broom makers, basket makers and chair caners
• Potters producing redware and sgraffito decorated pieces
• Spinners, weavers, dyers and needleworkers
• Woodcarvers, coopers and furniture makers
• Fraktur artists practicing the illuminated manuscript tradition associated with Pennsylvania German baptismal and marriage certificates
• Hex sign painters, tinsmiths, candle makers and leatherworkers

Most demonstrators also sell their work, so the festival functions as a substantial marketplace for handmade goods as well as an educational program. Quilting holds a particularly prominent place: the festival hosts a large juried quilt exhibition and an annual quilt sale that has long been one of the signature draws for collectors and quilters traveling from outside the region.

Food and Cooking Traditions

Pennsylvania Dutch cooking is one of the festival's defining elements. Food stands and kitchen demonstrations present dishes tied directly to the regional table, and many of the vendors are local church groups, fire companies and community organizations preparing recipes that have circulated in the area for generations. Commonly represented items include sausage sandwiches, chicken pot pie, ham and string beans, pierogies, potato filling, chow chow, apple dumplings, shoofly pie, funnel cakes and birch beer. Ox roast and other large scale roasted meat preparations have been fixtures of the event. Cooking demonstrations and food related seminars explain the historical background of the dishes, including preservation methods, seasonal eating patterns and the role of the summer kitchen on Pennsylvania German farms.

Music, Performance and Programming

Stages across the grounds host continuous live programming during festival hours. Traditional and folk musicians perform throughout the day, and the schedule typically includes hoedown and square dancing, brass and polka bands, dialect storytelling and seminars conducted in or about Pennsylvania Dutch speech. A longstanding feature is the staged Amish wedding, a recurring interpretive presentation of plain community marriage customs. Other regular components have included a one room schoolhouse presentation, historical reenactors, farm animal displays, antique machinery and children's programming built around old fashioned games and hands on craft projects. An amusement area with rides operates on the grounds as well, giving younger visitors a midway style option alongside the cultural exhibits.

Location and Getting There

The Kutztown Fairgrounds are located along Kutztown Road in Kutztown Borough, Berks County, roughly midway between Allentown and Reading and close to Interstate 78 and U.S. Route 222. The location makes the festival accessible as a day trip from the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Lancaster and northern Maryland and New Jersey. Kutztown itself is a small college town, home to Kutztown University, and the surrounding countryside is dotted with bank barns, covered bridges and farm markets that many visitors fold into the same outing.

Parking is available at the fairgrounds. Because the event draws large crowds, particularly on weekend days and over the July 4 holiday, arriving earlier in the day generally means easier parking and shorter lines at food stands.

Accessibility

The festival grounds include a wheelchair accessible entrance, wheelchair accessible restrooms and a wheelchair accessible parking lot. Much of the event takes place outdoors on grass and gravel surfaces, so visitors using mobility devices may wish to contact the festival office in advance for guidance on the easiest routes between exhibit areas.

Planning a Visit

The festival runs for nine days, beginning on the Saturday before Independence Day and continuing through the following Sunday. Admission is charged, and multi day and advance purchase options are commonly offered. Because a large share of the programming is outdoors, comfortable walking shoes, sun protection and water are sensible for summer conditions, and several buildings and tents provide shade during the hottest part of the day. Schedules for performances, seminars, contests and the quilt sale are published ahead of each year's event.

Contact Information

• Address: 15197 Kutztown Rd, Kutztown, PA 19530, United States
• Phone: +1 610-683-1537