Kensington: New Pub Crawl Added to Trenton Avenue Arts Festival

The East Kensington Neighbors Association meets the third Monday of every month at the Philadelphia Brewing Company to discuss matters such as the festival.
The East Kensington Neighbors Association meets the third Monday of every month at the Philadelphia Brewing Company to discuss matters such as the festival.
The East Kensington Neighbors Association meets the third Monday of every month at the Philadelphia Brewing Company to discuss matters such as the festival.

The committee board for the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival (TAAF) is attempting to expand the annual spring event beyond Trenton Avenue by adding a pub crawl to the list of activities.

“TAAFter Dark is going to be a brand new thing this year. We are going to try to have happy hour specials since the festival runs until 5,” Clare Dych, a committee board member, said.

The drink specials will be at restaurants, bars and art galleries from Frankford Avenue to Fishtown to make the festival last longer than usual and to give residents a motive to explore more of what the neighborhood has to offer.

In addition to the pub crawl, the board, which consists of volunteers from the East Kensington Neighbors Association, will give adults as well as children the chance to create art themselves.

“One thing we’re trying to do this year is make sure our vendors have something interactive,” Dych said. “They can do spin art for the kids or a wood working demonstration.”

Vendors include all forms of art such as painting, sculpture, sewing, clothing and jewelry. With about 100 vendors signed up to participate, the board, led by Dych and Justin Russell, is looking to double the amount to entertain the 10,000-plus people who attend the free public event.

At the East Kensington Neighbors Association’s monthly meeting held on March 18, Dych announced the recently rewarded $3,000 Penn Treaty Special Services Grant.  The money from this plus the money raised from the festival will go toward neighborhood projects and revitalization of places such as the Hagert Street Playground.

“We raise a majority of the funds for our neighborhood activities through the festival,” Dych said. “But more than that, it’s a tool to bring the community together, to bring together artists, food vendors, the sculpture derby- all these things to kind of make 19125 unique.”

Now in its eighth year, the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival will be held on Saturday May 18 from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. For more information and to sign up to volunteer, click here to visit the website.

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