Kutztown, Pennsylvania, dates back to the colonial period when it was a convenient lodging place, located midway between Reading and Allentown. Kutztown, known as the East Penn Valley, rich in limestone deposits, was settled mainly by German immigrants in the 1800s. The cultural history of Kutztown is largely German-Dutch.
The Kutztown Pennsylvania German Festival celebrates the town's heritage beginning the last weekend in June through the July Fourth holiday. Farming, gardening, spinning, weaving, and country cooking are showcased. Pennsylvania-Dutch crafts are represented by more than two-hundred traditional craftsman. There's blacksmithing, decoy carving, metalworking, paper-cutting, crochet, wood-working, tin-smithing, and candle-making. Visitors may purchase anything from a colonial bonnet to an hex sign.
A highlight of the event is America's largest Quilt Sale with more than two-thousand, five-hundred quilts handmade by local quilting experts; prize-winning examples are auctioned the last weekend of the fair. Pennsylvania-Dutch food is plentiful, featuring roast ox, sausage sandwiches, homemade pies and German pastry. Live country music, fiddle players, folk dancing, parades and marching bands add to the festivities.
The Kutztown Fair in August is a five-day event with rides, agriculture and animal judging, acrobats, trapeze artists, motorcycle daredevils, and magicians. Featured events include a demolition derby, stock car racing, beer-drinking contests, live bands every night, and fireworks. The Fairground Restaurant offers all-you-can-eat specials, and food vendors are located throughout the grounds.
Downtown Kutztown offers hometown charm and hospitality at over one-hundred shops, restaurants and businesses. Visitors are invited to explore Kutztown University's many special facilities including an art gallery, planetarium, stellar observatory, cartography lab, and the Pennsylvania German Heritage Center.
Kutztown's most famous native is the American painter Keith Haring, who rose to meteoric heights on the New York art scene in the 1980s. His graffiti-inspired murals with cartoon characters frozen in energetic movement symbolized the undercurrents of ethnic unrest that pervade urban life. The Keith Haring foundation, after the artist's death at the age of 31, donated one of his painted steel sculptures to Kutztown, where it is on public display in the main park.
Within a few hours of Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, DC, Kutztown offers tourists a chance to experience the rich heritage of German-Dutch immigrants and their descendants. Accommodations are available in Allentown and Reading, within five miles.
