Attendees of this year’s Ambler Arts & Music Festival peruse through vendor tents posted along Butler Avenue this past weekend in downtown Ambler. (Photo courtesy Elizabeth Wahl Kunzier / Ambler Main Street)
The sun is shining, the weather is warming and Ambler Main Street is preparing for the borough’s spring and summer events lineup.
Ambler Main Street organized a Restaurant Week in January and the inaugural Fire and Ice event last month to drum up interest in the town during the winter months.
“It was fantastic,” said Ambler Main Street Manager Elizabeth Wahl Kunzier. “The town was crowded. The merchants were all super happy because people shop, they would go and look at the ice sculptures and then they (would) go in and check out the store or go in and get something to eat.”
Wahl Kunzier stressed how “having a winter event kind of gives a little bit of extra life to carry a little boost to February.”
Spring and summer
Area residents and visitors alike can now look forward to free event staples such as First Fridays and the 27th annual Ambler Auto Show and 2024 Arts and Music Festival.
“Our (events) are just so insanely popular,” Wahl Kunzier said, observing a steady increase in attendance over the past few years. Wahl Kunzier observed “more foot traffic because there’s actually more residents” with recent residential development projects such as Mattison Estates and Ambler Crossing.
Spring festivities will kick off Saturday, May 4 with the opening of the Ambler Farmers’ Market near La Provence, at the corner of Maple and Butler avenues. The market will be open from 9 a.m. to noon every Saturday from May through November.
This year’s car show will follow from 1-6 p.m. on Sunday, May 19 along Butler Avenue in downtown Ambler. Wahl Kunzier expects at least 300 cars will be featured as planning continues.
“I have a few more food trucks because we don’t have Lucky Well anymore. So we’re down a restaurant, and a lot of places don’t open, like the Deterra doesn’t open until 4 p.m.,” she said.
While the borough’s First Fridays would typically begin in May, Wahl Kunzier said the monthly events would be limited to June, August and October.
“We’re not doing First Friday in May. We cut back on our first Fridays because they were so insanely popular that we got slammed with overtime from the borough guys and the police,” Wahl Kunzier said, adding that the September First Friday was cut “because it always falls on Labor Day Weekend.”
While a portion of Butler Avenue shuts down, Wahl Kunzier said that First Friday will happen with the downtown thoroughfare open. “It’s really fun and it’s free. So, First Friday, what we’re going to do is instead of closing the street down, I’m going to work with the merchants so that we still have a First Friday ‘event,’” she said. “People can have cocktails in their stores, and they’ll stay open a little bit later.”
Wahl Kunzier added that Primitive Boutique at 103 E. Butler Ave., will also have a DJ.
“So we’re still gonna celebrate it,” she said. “It’s just not going to be a complete town shutdown, just because it’s so expensive.”
Music Fest
Another borough favorite is the annual “Music Fest,” a two-day festival that showcases shopping, food, drinks, and live entertainment. Wahl Kunzier anticipated around 65 “artisans and crafters” will have products available for purchase during the festival on Friday, June 14 and Saturday, June 15. The event has drawn historic attendance, with nearly 30,000 people at last year’s festival.
“The town was packed,” she recalled.
Wahl Kunzier added she’s “focusing on local talent,” with crossover country band Triple Rail Turn and decades tribute group, Alter Ego, headlining the festival on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
“We’re all set to go with Music Fest. The line ups done, the vendors, I’m almost full with vendors. We are almost at capacity,” she said.
Looking ahead, people can expect a summer Restaurant Week as well as the traditional July 4 carnival and fireworks hosted by the Kiwanis Club of Ambler.
Wahl Kunzier described the small business community as “eclectic,” spotlighting several shops and restaurants that are “doing pretty well.” However, she acknowledged that there’s been some changes to the bustling downtown.
“We’ve got great restaurants and we have different restaurants. I mean we mourn the passing of Lucky Well, but Cantina Filez is coming. So we’re excited for that,” she said. “People go, and then other people come in, and it all just seems to ebb and flow.”
“We lost Liz-El Jewel Box after 40 some years. But Anne from Primitive Boutique was able to take both sides and expand her store,” she continued. “So you see things change. Everything’s not the same and they’re changing, I think for the better.”
But Wahl Kunzier emphasized the importance of frequenting the borough’s small businesses year-round.
“The thing that people need to remember is that these small businesses need to be supported all the time, not just at Christmas or not just, Valentine’s Day, you need to come back in and keep, keep supporting them,” she said. “Because the winter months are pretty long and pretty cold. So as long as people keep coming and shopping, and I think everyone’s still going out to dinner even in the winter — that’s how we keep these stores populated.”
This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between Wissahickon Now and The Ambler Gazette. To read more stories like this, visit the Ambler Gazette.
