Old, new events to highlight Cheswick this summer, officials say

Cheswick officials are hoping to showcase the borough this summer with events both new and old.

On Sunday, June 4, the annual Strawberry Festival returns bigger and better from 3 to 7 p.m. on Spruce Street between Hill and Highland avenues.

Later in the summer, the borough will kick off a new pop-up market, operating from 1 to 4 p.m. the second Sundays of July, August and September in the Cheswick Plaza parking lot.

Both events stemmed from ideas from council and residents to bring people into town and highlight the community, officials said.

Strawberry Festival

Shawna Ecker, chairwoman of Cheswick’s community development committee, said the Strawberry Festival has nearly doubled the number of vendors it had last year.

“This year, we have over 40 vendors,” she said.

Merchants include items such as crafts, nonprofits and food, she said. There will be about seven food trucks.

The event provides a “sense of community and a sense of working together,” she said.

The festival will include a petting zoo, music and a mini-train ride for kids, Ecker said. It also will feature the famous strawberry desserts, made by the Cheswick Recreation Board. The board took over the festival from the former Rotary Club a few years ago. It originally began in the late 1980s.

Proceeds from the dessert sales support the recreation board “with the intention of bringing future events to Cheswick,” Ecker said.

Those events are a Stars and Stripes bicycle parade July 2, a Saturday Singalong in September, a Fall Festival and Christmas in Cheswick, Ecker said.

Second Sunday pop-up market

Karen Matisz, chairwoman of council’s community relations committee, said the pop-up market’s goal is to bring in new businesses and highlight existing ones — and give people who live in Cheswick something to enjoy.

She said 10 vendors have signed up so far, and the goal is to have about 30 to 40 vendors, space permitting. The cost of a space is $20. Interested vendors can contact Matisz at karen.matisz@gmail.com.

“We’ve had a really good response so far,” she said.

Matisz said vendors include food trucks and a variety of crafts, food products and other items.

“There’s just kind of a mixture of everything, which is what we like — something for everyone,” she said.

People are encouraged to submit ideas of what they would like to see at the pop-up markets during the Strawberry Festival.

“We want to highlight our main street, and highlight our creative and intuitive people around here,” Ecker said.