Sep 20, 2009 5 min read

Yesterday, the hills surrounding Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, were “alive with the sound of music” during the second annual Coal and Coke Heritage Music Festival. Hundreds of people flocked to the campus to enjoy music from various genres, sample delicious ethnic foods and take a trip to the “Kiddie Koal Mine.”

“As far as tickets sales, we are ahead of last year,” said Gina Jones, co-chair of the festival. “This includes presale tickets and what we have done at the gate. We even have people coming from the state of California and New York.”

Jones said she spoke with a woman coming from the state of California because she could not believe she could see headliner Michelle Branch perform for only $10.

“It is the mission of Penn State Fayette and the Coal and Coke Festival to make it affordable to a lot of people,” said Jeremy Burnworth, co-founder of Geneva Marketing Group, one of the major sponsors of the festival.

Even though the festival had an aggressive marketing campaign in place, which included newspaper, radio and television advertisements, it was last year’s concertgoers who really “got the word out.”

“People saw articles in the newspaper, people saw television ads and people heard about it on the radio,” said Susan Brimo-Cox, the director of public relations for Penn State Fayette. “Word of mouth was wonderful. People who came last year told people about the festival this year.”

One such couple, who returned to the festival again this year because of their experience last year, was Sally and Kerry Moser of Uniontown. “Last year, it was fantastic,” said Kerry Moser. “It was one of the best events around here. It is a quality affair.”

“We just enjoyed last year so much,” said Sally Moser. “A lot of it is local talent. We have so much local talent, we should use it more.”

The Mosers are such big fans of the festival that they always make sure they are in town to attend. “When we would go on vacation, we plan around this (the festival),” said Sally Moser.”

While the Mosers were at the festival, they had the opportunity to watch The Augsburg German Band perform tunes including “There is No Beer in Heaven” and “Edelweiss.”

The couple also watched a late addition to the festival, Eric “Lovenotes” Craggette.

Craggette, who grew up in Adah, is a pianist who has had the opportunity to perform at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, have his music played in movies and release a CD called “Unbelievable.”

One of the songs Craggette performed for the audience was titled “Nature in Bloom.”

“This is what it sounds like when things come to life,” he told the audience as he began to play.

Craggette, who once prayed to God to help him find his craft with the piano, performed “God Understands Human Sadness.” “Things can happen at any time,” Craggette told the audience. “You never know what can happen.”

While Craggette was performing at the Pennsylvania Services Corporation Stage, the contemporary folk group, The NewLanders were performing in the Coal and Coke Heritage Center.

Audience members were moved by the music of The NewLanders as they described the hardships of early coalminers and the women who loved and cared for them in the song “Down in the Mine.”

“We talk about the hard working people, and we don’t want to forget the women,” said Paula Purnell of The NewLanders. “(The song) ‘Bread and Roses’ celebrates the hardworking women, and, yes, we need bread to live, but we also need roses.”

Guests could still enjoy the music of The NewLanders as it floated into the Coal and Coke Heritage Center museum.

People had the opportunity to see many relics from Fayette County’s heritage including a 1947 Amend Baseball Club Champion Trophy from the Klondike Section of the county league, a steamer trunk from 1905 complete with a traditional Slovak dress and of course antique mining equipment.

Also at the center, visitors had the opportunity to speak with re-enactors about life surrounding the coal mines and mining today.

In order to continue the celebration of the heritage of Fayette County, various vendors were on hand to sell traditional ethnic foods including pierogies, haluski and halupki, as well as the customary festival foods of funnel cakes, Hawaiian shaved ice and lemonade.

If any little ones needed to “burn some energy,” the Kiddie Koal Mine provided lots of opportunities including various bounce houses, a Velcro fly wall and a miniature train.

Because of the success of the festival and to continue celebrating the heritage of Fayette County, plans are already underway for the third annual Coal and Coke Heritage Music Festival that will take place on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010.

But until then, people will just have to wait for the hills of the campus to “sing once more.”