General Information

Our 42nd Annual Mifflin-Juniata Arts Festival will be held on Saturday, May 22nd from 10am - 5pm and on Sunday, May 23rd from 11am - 5pm.

Admission is free to all ages.

The festival is held rain or shine in Rec. Park located in Lewistown, Pennsylvania.

We offer free music and children's entertainment as well as international foods, artist demonstrations and artistic wares for purchase.

Demonstrating Artists - Popular Festival Draw

While free music, festival food, and the opportunity to shop are powerful draws to the Mifflin Juniata Arts Festival, others come to see the artists working.

The most visible example of this is the "Artist in Action", a yearly event in which a local artist, chosen by the Mifflin Juniata Arts Festival Council and sponsored yearly by friend of the festival, Dr. Braunstein, creates a piece during the course of the two day event. This year, Jodi Myers has been selected for that honor. Many of the artists in attendance this year will also be demonstrating.

Todd and Melissa Tabb of Wildfire Pottery will bring a kick wheel to this year's festival, to demonstrate how they create their pottery using traditional methods that date back centuries.

Kick wheels do not use a motor, but rather, a counterweight which the potter builds momentum with to shape a piece.

Jenny Ladis will be demonstrating her needle felting technique, which she uses to create dolls. Like the Tabbs, Landis uses largely traditional techniques.

Those interested in jewelry-making will likewise be pleased: many of the jewelers present at the festival will be demonstrating a variety of techniques that they use to craft their items.

And, again this year, artists from the Creative Oasis studio in State College will be performing a raku firing, a tradition which comes from Japanese pottery.
In raku firing, pottery is taken from the kiln while still extremely hot - often at temperatures around 1800 ºF - and then placed in a combustible material, before finally being quenched in water.
The process places an unbelievable strain on the pieces, which sometimes explode from the shock. Potters wear safety gear and use special tongs to handle the pieces.