Bordentown City is about to get crowded. The 36th annual Cranberry Festival takes over Farnsworth Avenue this Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 3 and 4, running from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, with more than 100 juried artists, crafters and makers setting up shop between Burlington and Park streets.
The free, two-day event has become one of the region's bigger fall draws, pulling in more than 40,000 visitors over the weekend, according to the festival's official site, btowncranfest.com. Admission is free, as confirmed by a report from newsbreak.com. Shoppers can expect vendor booths spanning jewelry, ceramics, photography, fiber arts, vintage and salvage pieces and specialty foods, as reported by PhillyVoice.
A Festival That Started With Just a Dozen Crafters
The festival has come a long way since its humble beginnings. It launched in 1989 with just 12 crafters set up on Walnut Street, per the same account from btowncranfest.com, and has since expanded to cover the entire Farnsworth Avenue business district as a full juried arts and crafts show. That growth is part of what now allows the event to accommodate well over 100 vendors and the tens of thousands of attendees who show up each year, according to the Downtown Bordentown Association's event listing on app.entrythingy.com, which notes the Downtown Bordentown Association sponsors the weekend.
94.5 PST, which first reported on this year's lineup for local listeners, notes the festival will include stops at Angelo's, Marcello's, Toscano's, Old Town Pub and Under the Moon as part of a food court built around Farnsworth Avenue's existing restaurant scene, according to 94.5 PST. Live music will play in a beer garden throughout the weekend, rounding out a schedule of shopping, food, drinks and dancing along the avenue.
Parking, Shuttles and Accessibility Details
Getting to the festival shouldn't require circling the block for a parking spot. Free parking is available at the Riverline parking lot, the Gilder Field parking lot and the Bordentown Elks, according to the festival's parking and shuttle page at btowncranfest.com. Free shuttle buses will run from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, ferrying visitors between the lots and the festival grounds.
Limited accessible parking will also be set aside on Crosswicks Street between Second Street and Farnsworth Avenue, and on Park Street near Farnsworth Avenue, PhillyVoice reports. Organizers are directing anyone with questions to the festival's website for additional details on vendors, schedules and logistics.
