The Kutztown Folk Festival for 2025 has been cancelled due to dwindling attendance, increased costs, and continued net losses according to a statement by the Kutztown Folk Festival Board of Directors.

The Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center has been affiliated with the folk festival for years. According to Patrick Donmoyer, Director of the Pa German Cultural Heritage Center, brought thousands to Berks County during the nine-day festival.

“During its heyday, there be 100,000 people there over the course of the nine-day festival, and we would have one of our largest opportunities to engage with not only the culture of the region, but then also visitors from all over the United States and international audiences as well, who came to see Pennsylvania folk culture at its finest.”

During the pandemic, the festival was suspended, and it is believed that it had some impact on the attendance. There are also several other cultural events that are taking place yearly that could have contributed as well.

“I think the Kutztown Folk Festival always did a wonderful job of meeting its mission to preserve Pennsylvania Dutch folk culture and to celebrate it throughout the region and really engage new audiences of people with educational programing to learn about what it meant to be, what it means, I should say, not what it meant, not in past tense, but presently what it means to be Pennsylvania Dutch and what it means to live in this region that we share.”

According to Donmoyer, when the festival was first established in the 1950’s, it was an opportunity for families in that area to go out and have a good time.

“It was also ensured participation from a lot of the families who lived in this area, who worked in this area, who that was the largest amount of time that they had off. But it was also the time of the greatest amount of heat. And so that was one thing I think that the festival experienced as a challenge over the years. But it was also I think being rooted in July 4th was an opportunity for people of Pennsylvania Dutch descent to help people remember that this is a unique American culture.”

 

 

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