Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival nears half-century mark

The slate that Deb and Fred Rost use as a canvas for their artwork comes from Vermont — but they don’t have to go nearly that far to sell it.

The Latrobe residents have been bringing products from their Stenciled Slates business to the Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival for a quarter-century.

“For us, it’s a great festival that pulls a lot of people from all over the area,” Deb Rost said. “Plus, we see a lot of people we know and a lot of returning customers.”

For Rosario Alessi, 72, of Lake Placid, Fla., the trip is a little longer: a two-day drive, part of a Northeast run of festivals he attends most years with his business, Tie-Dye Rose.

“I do Westmoreland, then I head up to the Erie County Fair, where about a million people come through,” Alessi said. “Then we go to the New York State Fair with another million people. Then it’s usually back home to start making shirts again.”

Stenciled Slates and Tie-Dye Rose will be among hundreds of vendors at the 49th annual Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival, set for Thursday to Sunday at Twin Lakes Park in Hempfield.

During festival season, Alessi bounces back and forth between homes in upstate New York and Florida and said he’s enjoyed coming to the Westmoreland festival the past two decades.

“There are some folks who come to the festival just to buy our shirts,” he said. “I have a dedicated following, and I don’t want to let them down.”

Every year about this time, Alessi loads his motor home with about 100 boxes full of tie-dyed shirts and hits the road. With a variety of colors and sizes ranging from newborn to 6X, there’s plenty to discover at the Tie-Dye Rose booth.

The festival will include an artists’ market, a variety of food vendors, crafts and activities for the whole family, a juried art competition and performances by more than 50 bands.

Executive director Diane Shrader said it takes about 200 volunteers to run the festival smoothly, and those numbers have seen a boost.

“Our volunteers are up considerably from last year,” Shrader said. “We only ask people to volunteer for a three-hour shift, but we do have a lot of folks who stay and volunteer all day.”

Festival organizers still are seeking volunteers for this year.

Some volunteers perform tasks as simple as “auditing” a music performance, Shrader said.

“Did the band show up on time? How many people were in the audience? Was the weather good?” she said. “Maybe they’re a photographer and they want to come take photos. We can use those for reference or for our ads. Drop-in volunteers are always something we can use.”

Anyone interested in volunteering can email info@artsandheritage.com or call 724-834-7474.

For more information, visit ArtsandHeritage.com.