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Tamaqua Heriatge Festival includes Jeep Show, more

A street fair that brings thousands to Tamaqua each year is about to get even bigger.

Tamaqua’s Heritage Festival, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday in downtown Tamaqua, will include not one, but two, car shows.

And they’re in addition to all the great vendors, music, historical offerings and entertainment that folks have come to expect, said Justin Bailey, a festival organizer from the Tamaqua Odd Fellows.

“The car show of the Tamaqua Street Machine Association 2.0 did so well and they were happy with it,” Bailey said. “They came back.”

But instead of holding the show at the St. Luke’s/Star Community Health Network parking lot as it did for SummerFest, the association will be at the west end of West Broad Street, from Lehigh Street to just past Swatara Street.

The St. Luke’s lot, at 34 S. Railroad St., will continue to host a car show — only this year it will be for Jeeps. The Just Another Jeeper Jeep Crew and Jeep Club Against Suicide will be there with a show and shine, Jeep painting and information on suicide awareness.

Both car shows will be held 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Registration is free for both, with donations accepted for the Odd Fellows Cemetery.

“It’s going to be a real fun event, and I’m sure people will like going to both,” Bailey said. “It’s going to give people a reason to walk the entirety of the festival.”

Almost all of Broad Street — from South Railroad to Lehigh Streets — will be closed to traffic for the festival and allow attendees plenty of space to walk.

Dozens upon dozens of vendors will be on hand selling crafts, food and more.

“We have a lot of repeat vendors and a lot of newer vendors that want to take part in it,” Bailey said.

The Odd Fellows, which took over organizing the Heritage Festival and SummerFest from the Tamaqua Historical Society last year, will serve up its fresh-pressed apple cider.

“We’ve been doing that for years. Everybody always looks forward to that,” Bailey said.

The New Ringgold Odd Fellows Lodge will arrive at 6 a.m., set up a huge kettle and start simmering ham and bean soup.

“They cook it right there,” Bailey said.

There will be barbecue, french fries, ice cream and everything in between.

Stokes Ministries, he noted, will have homemade halupki and halushki.

“Their stuff is so huge it’s not even funny,” Bailey said of the portions.

Leiby’s Carriage Service will have horse-drawn carriage rides along the festival route.

And Polka Joe Manjack, of WMGH/WLSH, will broadcast his “Magic Polka Machine” live from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. From 1 to 5 p.m., Lily Hess, Susie Johns, and Amaris Means will present live music from a spot in front of the First Methodist Church, 124 W. Broad St.

The Tamaqua Historical Society Museum and Annex, 118 W. Broad St., will be open, and so too will be its Hegarty Blacksmith Shop and Tamaqua Area Wagon Works Museum on Hegarty Avenue.

“We are going to have a lot of stuff. It is going to be a nice event,” Bailey said. “We will have a lot there. We have a lot to offer.”

Dale Freudenberger, president of the Tamaqua Historical Society, takes a break from leading a tour of the Hegarty Blacksmith Shop to show a 1790 blacksmith bellows that was donated to the society and is part of the Hegarty Blacksmith Shop TIMES NEWS FILE PHOTO