Erie’s Heritage Festival

Signature Event of the Erie County Historical Society

September 12, 2009 at Liberty Park

The Erie County Historical Society hosts Erie’s last “Blast” of summer, the fifth annual Heritage Festival, on Saturday, September 12, at Liberty Park Pepsi Amphitheater. This year’s event includes an Ethnic Marketplace and World Stage which will celebrate the diversity of our region through music, dance, food and crafts.

The Marketplace features several large tents filled with artisans and traditional foods, while the World Stage offers local cultural groups the opportunity to demonstrate dance, music, traditional costume and more.

Erie’s Heritage Festival is a day-long performance venue of Americana and World music performed by musicians from the Erie and Southern Ontario regions. Activities will take place throughout the day at various venues within Liberty Park. The event will feature French & Indian War, Civil War and WWII Military Re-enactors, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard’s Battery C, 1st Battalion and the 107th Field Artillery. Other activities include The Harry T. Burleigh Society’s Underground Railroad Interactive Classroom, Erie Maritime Museum Maritime Heritage Tent and ExpERIEnce Children’s Museum Tent. Musical performances will begin at the Pepsi Amphitheater at noon.

The event will be brought to a close with a Pops performance by the Erie Philharmonic with music director Daniel Meyer. The finale of the Pops concert and Heritage Festival is a spectacular presentation of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and John Philip Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever with choreographed cannon fire, church bells and fireworks launched from behind the stage on Presque Isle Bay.

Visit www.erieheritagefest.com for a detailed event listing and more information!

**Photographs by Greg Zbach.