Organizers are busy preparing for this year’s Palmerton Community Festival.

Susie Arner, president and festival chairperson, said this Saturday will mark set up day in the park.

“We’ll be there to do some minor cleaning up in the park, to initiate basic set up of common festival equipment,” Arner said. “Some stands might be present in the park to set the framework of their stand/location to get that in place so that the many behind-the-scenes volunteers can do their work.”

The 35th annual event is set to be staged Sept. 6-8 in the borough park.

It will be open from 5-11 p.m. Sept. 6, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sept. 7, and noon to 9 p.m. Sept. 8.

Arner added that contrary to popular belief, there’s no magic button, but rather a “lot of magical people who are called volunteers, and they come in morning noon and night, and they work and get set up to go for Palmerton and the surrounding area for what is one of the best events of the whole year.”

Arner noted that there are a few who have already begun cooking.

“The Catholic church has already begun cooking hamburger barbecue and freezing it for customers to purchase it,” she said. “St. John’s Lutheran Church are actively out there setting up their work schedule to have enough volunteers and looking for folks to help offset the cost of their famous hot dogs and hamburgers.”

In addition, Arner said that the Palmerton Pool has been accepting donations of new and handcrafted items for the lunch bag raffle since the start of the swimming season and will continue to accept donations right up until the day of the festival,

“Although this is the Palmerton Community Festival, we are not limited to Palmerton nonprofit groups; we have many nonprofit groups from the surrounding area, and we welcome them to be a part of the event that is held in Palmerton,” she said. “We welcome these outside people to be a part of the festival and raise funds for their cause; everyone’s causes, philanthropic ideas, are valuable to the entire community, not just Palmerton but all the surrounding areas.”

Arner said there’s a lot that goes into selecting the entertainment acts as well.

“The entertainment choices for the festival may not 100 percent be your favorite, but we try to vary the types of music and bring in musical entertainment not typically seen in this immediate area,” she said. “We do feel the variety of entertainment, and the national acts we bring into the festival, add to the success of the event and allow the community to see unique, quality entertainment on a free level.”