Market Day Organizers In Newtown Keeping An Eye On The Sky

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — Newtown Market Day organizers are keeping an eye to the sky and their fingers crossed for Saturday.

With the remnants of Hurricane Ian forecast to move north toward Pennsylvania, the forecast has taken a turn for Saturday's planned outdoor event in Newtown Borough organized by the Newtown Historical Association.

"We're watching the weather. It's tricky because things keep changing every hour. A few days ago there was no rain. Then earlier it was just light rain. Now it's heavy rain. We won't really know until we look at it on Friday," said Market Day organizer Ashara Shapiro.

According to Shapiro, the Market Day team will make a decision whether to cancel the event by 7 p.m. on Friday. Watch for an announcement on the Market Day and Newtown Historical Association Facebook pages and on Instagram.

It's difficult to schedule a rain date, said Shapiro, noting the large number of craft events that jam the calendar in October. "We discussed in great detail today about planning a rain date for next year for this very reason."

Looking for the silver lining, Shapiro said this year they added a Friday night event - "A Night Of Newtown Memories" - which is promising to be a great night for reminiscing.

"We organized that with the idea that it would be inside and if it did rain that would be a guaranteed Newtown celebration," she said. "In retrospect that was a really good idea. It's going to be a great way to celebrate the town, celebrate the historical association and all the work they do even if we lose the outside events on Market Day."

The special evening, which is sold out, will be narrated by WHYY's Radio Times host Marty Moss-Coane and will take place at the historic Newtown Theatre.

"As far as Market Day, we're going to keep our fingers crossed and pray that the wind is in our favor and it all shifts a bit," said Shapiro. "Even if the rain starts on Saturday night, that's great for us. But we'll see."

If the forecast does improve and Market Day moves forward as planned, Shapiro said everyone's in for a new and exciting time in and around the Court Inn at Centre Avenue and Court Street and extending around the block.

At the heart of Market Day will be more than 100 fine artists and craftspeople, live music, artisan food, scarecrow stuffing, a puppet show and historic reenactments.

"We're bringing back the pie eating contest, which is fun. We're bringing back the corn husking contest. And we have a new musician/songwriter - Joshua Howard - who is incredible. He'll be performing from 2 to 4 p.m.," said Shapiro.

"There are so many great things that we're doing. And the caliber of artists that we're having is really wonderful," she said. "All the favorites will be back this year."

The food court will be located along Centre Avenue from State Street to the Court Inn. Artist booths will line Centre Avenue from Court Street up to the Newtown Library Company and along Mercer Street up to Congress. In addition, Hutch Hamilton and his team of Belgians will be offering hayrides along Congress.

"We have a big master grand plan," said Shapiro. "The silver lining is that even if the weather is not on our side, the structure will now be in place for future Market Days, which will make next year even better."

Market Day is a celebration of Newtown's beginnings, paying homage to what life was like when
farmers and craftspeople brought livestock, produce and hand forged wares to town to sell to
the community.