Also: butterflies, the circus, BBQ battle and much, much more!
By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times
Kennett Square’s legendary Matt Chapman is just one of the many stars of this weekend’s New Garden Festival of Flight. From class cars and planes to food, music and fun — it’s a weekend long celebration and a can’t miss Chester County tradition.
When it comes to traditional Chester County events, one of the oldest and best is the annual air show at the New Garden Flying Field in Toughkenamon. The show has been staged continuously for more than 40 years and it just keeps getting bigger and better.
The 2014 Festival of Flight Air & Car Show (New Garden Flying Field, off Route 1, Toughkenamon, 610-268-2619, http://newgarden.schultzairshows.com) is scheduled for August 23 and 24 from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. each day.
As always, Kennett Square’s Matt Chapman will be one of the stars of the show. Chapman, a US Aerobatic Team veteran, was an individual bronze medalist and team silver medalist at the 1988 World Aerobatic Championships in the Slovak Republic.
Aerial displays will be performed by Kevin Russo SNJ-6 Aerobatics, Jerry Wells Bucker Jungmeister Aerobatics, Jason Flood in a Pitts Special biplane, Greg Koontz Decathlon Aerobatics, Mark Murphy P-51 Mustang, Scott Francis MXS Aerobatics and a “Parachute Team Demonstration.”
There will be a variety of “Warbird Flights” featuring PTs, L Birds, SNJs and T6s. Also featured will be demonstrations by RC Modelers and the always-popular Greg Koontz Flying Farmer/Truck Top landing routine.
The Ultimate Abbot and Costello Show will be presented several times each day.
There will also be live performances of music from the 1930s and 1940s by the all-girl singing trio Manhattan Dolls.
Other attractions at this weekend’s show at the New Garden Airport include souvenir stands, airplane rides, a pancake breakfast, an antique and classic car show and food and beverage concessions.
The ticket price schedule is — adults, $20 at gate or $17 online; children (ages 6-12), $10 at gate or $7 online; family pass (2 adults, 2 children), $55 at gate of $45 online.
Also taking wing this weekend is the Tyler Arboretum’s annual Butterfly Festival.
This weekend, butterfly lovers along with the staff at Tyler Arboretum (515 Painter Road, Media, 610-566-9134, www.tylerarboretum.org) will be following a philosophy somewhat similar to that of Kahlil Gibran, the world-famous Lebanese-American writer and poet who wrote, “If you love someone, let them go.”
On August 23, the nature-oriented site in Media will host its annual Butterfly Fesitival. Visitors to Saturday’s event will be able to bid farewell to the monarch butterflies as the colorful insects are tagged and released for their southern migration to Mexico. It will be time to say — Hasta la vista! Monarcas.
The arboretum will have butterfly experts available to provide information on creating a butterfly-friendly habitat in home gardens — an environment featuring all the butterflies’ favorite plants. Visitors will be able to learn all about butterflies that are native to our area — how they transform from egg to caterpillar, then to chrysalis, and finally to butterfly.
Kids of all ages can participate in games and make-and-take crafts throughout the day. Tasty stone-fired pizza will be available for purchase from the Pizza Wagon, and, as always, visitors are invited to bring picnic lunches. The festival and all of its activities are included with the arboretum’s standard admission fee.
Tyler Arboretum is a non-profit public garden and one of the oldest arboreta in the northeastern United States. It encompasses 650 acres of renowned plant collections, heritage and champion trees and historic buildings — along with 17 miles of hiking trails through woodlands, wetlands and meadows.
Admission fees for Tyler Arboretum are $11 for adults, $9 for seniors (65 and older) and $7 for youth (ages 3-15).
On August 23, there will also be a Butterfly Festival at Colonial Gardens (745 Schuylkill Rd, Phoenixville, 610-948-9755, www.colonialgardenspa.com).
The colorful event, which will be held in the Garden, will feature a “Butterfly Release” at noon. The festival will also feature vendors, guest speakers and seminars. Raindate is August 24.
Those who have a true appreciation for the circus know that the best way to experience the circus is the old-fashioned way — to be sitting in the stands at a one-ring circus set up under a tent with performers so close that it seems you’re actually part of the show.
The Cole Bros. Circus comes to New Castle, Del. this weekend.
From August 22-24, you can enjoy just such an experience when Cole Bros. Circus of the Stars pitches its tent for a three-day, seven-performance run at Blue Diamond MX Park (765 Hamburg Road, New Castle, Delaware, 386-736-0071, http://www.gotothecircus.com). Performance times are 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. on August 22, 1:30, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. on August 23 and 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. on August 24.
The 129th Anniversary Edition of Cole Bros. Circus, which features Chris Connors as Ringmaster, offers a wide variety of top-flight acts — including the aerial artistry of Petya Milanova.
“I’ve been with Cole Bros. Circus for over 12 years and I’ve done several different acts during that time,” said Milanova, during a recent phone interview. “The first was aerial ballet with hoops and the second was a double chiffon act with a friend of mine.”
Chiffon, which is also known as aerial silks, tissue or aerial fabrics, features silks that are long pieces of fabric which are suspended in the air. The aerial artists climb, suspend, wrap and have controlled falls using these strips of aerial fabric.
“Now, I’m doing a single hair hang and an aerial production,” said Milanova, a native of Sofia, Bulgaria who moved to America when she was 21. “When I’m up in the air, I juggle with clubs, balls and ribbons and then do a very fast spin at the end.”
Some of the other featured acts in this year’s Cole Bros. show are the Fassio Family (hand balancing), Corps de Ballet (aerial ballet), Dale Thomsen (Human Cannonball), Vicenta Pages (Royal Bengal Tigers), Thrillers Circus Daredevils (high wire), Lana & Company (hand balancing), the Flying Ponce Family (aerial act) and the Thunderdrome (featuring Eric, Wendy and Anthony).
As expected, the show will have plenty of what people expect from a travelling circus — elephants, camels, dogs, horses, jugglers and plenty of clowns. Tickets are $16 for general admission, $20 for reserved and $23 for VIP.
You learned it in school so you know that a tomato is a fruit rather than a vegetable. But, it still always seems like a vegetable.
However, if you doubt that it is a fruit, just pop a few tiny golden-orange cherry tomatoes in your mouth and the amazing burst of natural sweetness will prove that the tomato is indeed a fruit.
For those who love fresh, flavorful local tomatoes, this is the time of season to celebrate the tasty fruit that masquerades as a vegetable. It’s the time of year when local tomatoes are at their juiciest and succulent best.
The variety of tomatoes increases from year to year — especially heirloom tomatoes. Heirlooms come in all sizes, shapes and colors — and each has a very distinguishable taste.
On Saturday, heirloom tomatoes will be the stars of the show when terrain at Styers (914 Baltimore Pike, Glen Mills, 610-459-2400, http://styers.shopterrain.com) hosts its annual Heirloom Tomato Festival from 1-6 p.m.
The festival, which is free and open to the public, features a variety of events, including sampling of savory treats, gardening and landscaping workshops, sampling of the results of the staff salsa competition and children’s summertime crafts and face painting.
Other attractions include a lecture on heirloom tomato history, tomato tastings at a Bloody Mary bar, displays of “Summer Garden Party Tablescapes,” a “Bridal Open House,” a demonstration of typographic sun printing with Dana Tanamachi-Williams and a market featuring local vendors and a shop featuring custom plantings from Design by Terrain.
The state’s best BBQ is front at center at the State Championship BBQ Cook-Off, Friday and Saturday in New Holland.
The 2014 New Holland Summer Fest (New Holland Community Park, 400 East Jackson Street, New Holland, 717-669-1400, http://nhsummerfest.org) will be held August 22 and 23 and will feature the “State Championship BBQ Cook-Off.”
Obviously, the barbecue competition will be the major focus but the event also has all that you would expect from a country fair — food vendors, children’s activities and souvenir stands.
For the kids, there will be face painting, “Tag-Along,” a clown teaching how to make animal balloons and “Kid’s Q” where they can learn how to barbecue. Entertainment for visitors of all ages will be provided by the Horst Brothers Bluegrass Band and DJ Joe Batisti.
The family-oriented event has an admission fee of just $1. Hours are 8 a.m.-8 p.m. on August 22 and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on August 23.
This weekend, it’s time for the annual Ukrainian Folk Festival at the Tryzub Ukrainian American Sport Center (County Line and Lower State roads, Horsham, 215-343-5412, www.tryzub.org), which will be held August 24 from noon-8 p.m.
The festival, which is one of the most popular late-summer ethnic festivals in the area, starts at noon with children’s activities, vendor areas with Ukrainian crafts, food booths and live music by theKarpaty Orchestra.
The “Gala Festival Stage Show” is slated to get underway at 1:30 p.m. and run through 4:30 p.m. with performances by Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, Iskra Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, Iskra Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, Vox Ethnika and violinist Innesa Tymochko Dekajlo.
Then, from 4:30-8 p.m., it will be time for “Zabava,” which is billed as a “Public Social Dance.” The “Zabava” at this year’s 23rd annual staging of the festival, will feature the Vox Ethnika Orchestra performing a variety of eastern European dance music, including traditional, modern, ballroom and Polka.
There also will be vendors selling a wide variety of mouth-watering Ukrainian foods such as pyrohy (pierogies), holuptsi (stuffed cabbage) and kowbasa (kielbasa). Other items available for purchase include baked goods, picnic fare and cold beverages.
Admission to the festival is $15 for adults, $10 for students and free for children (under 13).
The Allentown Fair, one of the state’s oldest — dating to be fore the U.S. Civil War _ kicks off this weekend.
The Allentown Fair (17th and Chew Street, Allentown, 610-433-7541, www.allentownfairpa.org) is unquestionably one of the oldest festivals in Pennsylvania — an event that has been drawing large crowds ever since ’52.
You might be impressed if you think 63 years is a long time. You’ll be really impressed when you consider that it was 1852 not 1952 when the inaugural staging of the Allentown Fair took place.
It was in October 1852 when the Lehigh County Agricultural Society held its first fair and the huge annual fair in Allentown is still one of the state’s premier late-summer attractions. Now known as “The Great Allentown Fair”, the 2014 edition opens on August 26 and continues through September 1. It will be the fair’s 162nd anniversary this year.
The Allentown Fair is a fun-filled event that spans generations and appeals to people of all ages. The multi-day event, which is held at the Allentown Fairgrounds, features thousands of farm, garden and home exhibits and competitions along with thrill rides, amusement games, variety acts, international foods and some of the top entertainers currently on tour.
The Grandstand Stage hosts the headline acts — Pitbull (August 26), Motley Crue and Alice Cooper (August 27), Lady Antebellum (August 28), Tim McGraw (August 29), Hunter Hayes (August 30), the Fresh Beat Band (August 31) and the J & J Demolition Derby (September 1).
All Grandstand shows are ticketed events but the fair also offers a wide array of free concerts at the Music & Variety Show Tent, the MainGate Nightclub and Bier Garten and the RCN Farmerama Theater.
The fair’s list of daily entertainment attractions also includes “Robinson’s Pig Paddling Porkers,” “Lil’ Farm Hands,” “Matt’s Family Jam,” “Elephant Encounter,” “Fired Up High Dive Show,” “Melody Farm Follies” and the “4-H Petting Zoo.”
As always, amusement games and rides are one of the fair’s main attractions. This year, the Great Allentown Fair will again feature thrilling rides and games of skill and chance presented by Powers Great American Midways.
There will also be a wide array of agricultural competitions and exhibits each day at the fair. Tickets are $6 for adults with children under 12 admitted free.
The focus will be on beads at a special event this weekend at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center (100 Station Avenue, Oaks, 610-323-3263, www.beadfest.com). Now through August 24, the expo hall in Montgomery County is hosting Bead Fest — an event that claims to be the largest bead and jewelry show on the East Coast.
The huge annual event, which is billed as a bead and jewelry extravaganza, will feature hands-on jewelry making classes, informative seminars, beading competitions and a large vendors’ area where visitors can purchase everything from beading supplies to hand-crafted jewelry.
Bead Fest will have close to 150 booths and a wide array of workshops which will be presented by experts in the bead and jewelry fields.
A number of special techniques will be demonstrated, including wire knitting, design, wire and beads, bead crocheting, wire weaving, bead stitching, lampworking, metal clay, chain maille, wire and metal, kiln fusing, metalsmithing, bead stringing and wire wrapping.
Tickets for Bead Fest — $12 for a weekend pass — are available only at the door.
