NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa (EYT) – A revived Peanut Butter Festival will not only have a new title sponsor in Char-Val Candies of New Bethlehem but will also sport a new logo that will be used for all marketing, promotional, and informational materials produced for the event.
(Pictured above: 2012 Peanut Butter Festival)
Char-Val Candies, a long time New Bethlehem confectioner, has stepped up to help the Redbank Valley Chamber of Commerce move the annual Peanut Butter Festival to the next level. Festival Co-Chair Gordon Barrows unveiled the new sponsorship and logo to a meeting of interested festival supporters on Thursday night, May 11, at Joe’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant in New Bethlehem.
New Look for 2017 Festival Promotion
In the process of getting the 2017 festival off the ground, Gordon told the gathering that festival letterhead and business cards featuring the new logo will be available for volunteers to use within the next week. A full-color rack card, promoting the festival will also be printed later this month just as soon as the festival schedule is finalized. The rack card will be distributed throughout western Pennsylvania to promote the event. Vendor forms and sponsorship letters will be available shortly for volunteers to sign up vendors and sponsors. Volunteers are essential to a successful event, and volunteer signup forms will be available on the chamber website by Monday, May 15.
In the renewed structure, vendors will be charged a little more than in previous years, reflecting some increased costs that the festival committee expects to incur this year. The chamber is hoping to increase the availability of electricity for vendors, which will be an additional cost for the event. Among planned changes that organizers hope will improve value, are longer hours on Friday and Saturday of the festival, with hours being from noon until 10:00 p.m. and a more professional image for the event with the new logo and new imaging. Gordon Barrows explained that the plan is to provide more value to vendors than in the past, offsetting the increased fees.
Festival to Collaborate with Redbank Valley High School Homecoming
Following Gordon Barrows presentation, the group moved into a general brainstorming session bringing up several areas of concern and questions. There were some questions raised about the festival competing with Redbank Valley High School’s Homecoming weekend. As the Peanut Butter Festival is firmly set for the third weekend in September, homecoming does sometimes fall on that same weekend. The high school’s homecoming is scheduled around Clarion’s Autumn Leaf Festival, which is always held on Clarion University’s Homecoming weekend. To complicate the equation, Clarion University’s Homecoming is scheduled through the NCAA football league schedule. The consensus of the assembly was that the Peanut Butter Festival should collaborate with homecoming rather than compete with it.
The Peanut Butter Festival is scheduled for September 15 to September 17.
Visibility/Access to First Aid Station
There was a discussion about improving the visibility and access to the emergency tent/truck at the park during the festival. Among suggestions floated were to install tall banners at the first aid station, prepare maps of the vendors and park which would include a well marked first aid station. Suggestions were made to contact local construction companies and equipment rental companies to try to secure portable flood lights for improved lighting during the festival.
Car Show
The car show generated a lot of discussion at Thursday night’s meeting. Several people mentioned that it seemed like the car show was separate from the festival because the car show is at Redbank Chevrolet and not in the park or along Water Street. There were several good ideas floated that could improve the show. One suggestion was to work with local churches and perhaps the school district to have festival parking away from the venue and have churches with vans provide shuttle service. One car owner asked if it would be possible to ban dogs and bicycles from the car show venue. He recounted how a dog ruined an expensive aluminum wheel during last year’s show. Gordon Barrows said that he would look into how that additional protection for cars could be provided.
Gordon Barrows expressed hope that the new title sponsor, new logo, and proposed changes will fire up the community and get some good people out to volunteer.
