The food vendors are set, the rides are ready, and musicians are tuned up for the 28th annual Palmerton Community Festival opening tonight in the borough park.

The Festival, as it’s known to locals, actually started back in 1965 as an event to drum up support for a new hospital to replace the original that was built in 1908, said Peter Kern, the business manager of the Palmerton Heritage Center.“It was a big event,” Kern said. “This all had its roots in community confidence and support for the hospital.”Kern said that one of the key fundraising efforts at the festival was an auction of donated items, which would eventually transform into the Palmerton Hospital TV Auction.After its 25th anniversary in 1989, the Palmerton Hospital Foundation decided that it wanted the festival to benefit the community, so in 1990, the event became the Palmerton Community Festival.Kern and the Heritage Center have tracked the weather for the celebration over the years, and traditionally, the weather has more or less favored festivalgoers with only a day of rain on average. This year, all signs point to a pleasantly warm and only partly cloudy outlook.One of the unique features of the festival is that each food vendor has to serve something different. Kern said if an organization wants to serve ice cream and someone else is selling it already, then “you’ve got to come up with something different. There’s no duplicates.”An exception is the two booths that sell hamburgers and hot dogs, said Anne Cronk, one of the festival officers and a chairwoman for the S.S. Palmer/Parkside Parent Teacher Organization. With those two items in demand, both Bowmanstown/Parryville Lions and the St. John’s Lutheran Church sell them.Towamensing PTO will be selling different variations of homemade macaroni and cheese, such as buffalo and bacon style, while S.S. Palmer/Parkside will feature fresh fruit-filled crepes with homemade whipped cream and apple dumplings.The proceeds from the school stands will go toward field trips and other needs of the students, Cronk said.“There is just so much to choose from that “people eat their way through the weekend,” said Michele O’Neill, a festival officer.Though the hospital no longer acts as the main beneficiary of the festival, Kern said that it still stands as a part of the community, especially when it comes to good eats.“The hospital still has a presence, and its strawberry shortcake is still a staple of the festival,” he said.Getting everything ready for the festival is a good bit of work, but Cronk and the other volunteers enjoy pitching in. “We love it,” she said. “We have so much fun.”The Towamensing Elementary School PTO is also setting up shop at the festival, just a little way down the sidewalk from the S.S. Palmer/Parkside PTO. Mary Stahler, a member of the Towamensing PTO, said their stand needed a little extra work this year, and Palmerton Lumber and Shay’s Hardware came through for them with donations of wood and paint.Stahler said she loves the festival, because “it’s like a huge reunion here. You see people you haven’t seen in a year.”The Heritage Center isn’t selling any food, but they will have a variety of wares at the booth and the center including mugs, postcards, Christmas balls, sweatshirts, blanket throws, tote bags, World War I posters and New Jersey Zinc Co. silk ties. Kern said the center will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.“Back in the days when it was a hospital festival, much of the support was contributed by relatively few outside sources,” Kern said. “They didn’t have the number of activities they have today. Today, there is a much more diverse group of vendors and organizations that are being supported. It makes it a true community festival.”Tonight the festival runs from 5 to 11 p.m. with the Large Flower Heads will performing from 5 to 8 p.m., followed by Georgette Jones from 9 to 10:30 p.m.The festival continues from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday.