Pennsylvania Dutch tradition alive and thriving at Kutztown Folk Festival

Jul. 2—Sarah Edris is 22 years old, but she's been to every Kutztown Folk Festival over the past 23 years.

The Mohrsville native joked that she attended her first folk festival when her mom was pregnant with her, and she's never missed one since.

"The folk festival has always been really meaningful to me, I identify strongly as Pennsylvania Dutch," Edris said.

Perched on a ladder above the dozens of stalls, and the crowd of thousands slowly drifting past, Edris painted on a small barn.

The black-and-gold symbol she drew was new, but it stems from a centuries-old tradition, barn stars, which have long adorned barns in Berks County.

The barn star Edris painted was just one of countless pieces of Pennsylvania Dutch history and culture on display at the Kutztown Fairgrounds on Saturday afternoon, as the 73rd annual Kutztown Folk Festival kicked off its opening day.

The ever-present melody of fiddlers playing lively tunes paired perfectly with the smell of fried sweets, sausage, and ox roast drifting through the dozens of stalls and displays.

Decked out in traditional Pennsylvania Dutch attire, Amy Trumbauer kept the fryer hot as funnel cakes flew off the counter into the hands of hungry attendees.

Stan and Michele Mascibroda of Pottstown enjoyed a fresh batch of funnel cakes while lounging on a bale of hay.

"They're good. A long time ago I used to make these," Stan Mascriboda said.

Michele Mascirboda said the highlight for her was the hand-crafted art, especially the pottery.

In a nearby tent, master potter Steven Hunter offered hand-crafted pots, bowls and cups adorned with chickens, faces and other unique designs.

He said redware, or pottery made with clay rich with red shale, was commonly used by the Pennsylvania Dutch to store essentials like corn, molasses and whiskey.

Families flocked around a display of a Conestoga covered wagon, and in the heart of the fairgrounds, people filtered in and out of a small one-room schoolhouse.

A few dozen kids gathered around one of several stages to see sheep shearing.

The star of the show laid contently as Chris Stitzel carefully trimmed its coat of wool, first using an electric shearer, but switching to a hand tool at the end to demonstrate how farmers in the past sheared their flocks.

Stitzel's father, Randy, said his family has run a wool shearing operation out of Fleetwood since 1896.

Watching the sheep in rapt attention was Magdalen Lloyd, 7.

She said her day was absolutely awesome and that her favorite parts were seeing the animals and getting her face painted with butterfly wings.

Her father, Lawrence, said the family had recently moved to the area from Illinois, and this was their first time attending the festival.

"We did birch beer, sarsaparilla and stuff like that," Lawrence Lloyd said. "The hex symbols were cool, just seeing all the different types of paintings."

In an arts and craft barn, patrons perused the wares of artist Linda Doucette, who designs hand felted artwork, using dyes extracted from plants to create colorful wool figurines and paint pictures on wool canvasses.

All throughout the fairgrounds, Pennsylvania Dutch craftsmanship overflowed, with stalls at every turn offering tole-painted metalware, cane chairs, carved decoys, papercutting, bonnets, baskets, soaps and many more hand-crafted items.

Elsewhere four-person brass band Der Doppeladler Sauerkraut took up their trumpets to play a German folk music style described by band member Bill Folk as eclectic.

Folk said he and Leon Moll, Jeff Oxenford and Crystal Cammauf met nearby, when attending Kutztown University.

"We look forward to seeing each other (at the festival every year)," Folk said. "It helps preserve the culture."

This year's festival was the first since 2019. It was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19.

Attractions are open every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., until July 10. For more information, visit the Kutztown Folk Festival website, www.kutztownfestival.com.