Downtown Ambler is pictured during First Friday on June 7, 2024 on Butler Avenue. (Photo courtesy Elizabeth Wahl Kunzier/Ambler Main Street).
The Borough of Ambler is getting ready to kick of its 2025 spring event line up beginning this week with First Friday.
The festivities are expected to draw crowds downtown as a stretch Butler Avenue will close from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, May 2. Attendees can stroll along the borough’s main thoroughfare shopping from vendors as well as brick-and-mortar businesses.
“It’s celebrating spring. We’re finally out of the ice and cold and rain,” said Ambler Main Street Manager Elizabeth Wahl Kunzier.
Flying Yogurt is the event’s scheduled entertainment and food trucks will be situated along Ridge Avenue, according to Wahl Kunzier. First Fridays will also take place in June, August and October.
Auto Show
The Ambler Auto Show will take place that same weekend, scheduled from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, May 18 along Butler Avenue, from Main to Race streets. Thousands of people are expected to attend the event that’s been a mainstay in the borough for the last 25 years.
“It’s a very crowded day, and for a time, we moved it to Sunday so it didn’t have such a great impact on our service businesses,” she said.
Car enthusiasts and novices alike will be treated to an array of vehicles parked along the borough’s main thoroughfare. Wahl Kunzier noted the road closure will begin at 9 a.m.
Food trucks, music and prizes will accompany the “weather permitting” event. Around 140 vehicles have been preregistered so far, Wahl Kunzier said, with space to accommodate another 150 cars. Online and mail-in registration is available for the event, and day-of registration will open at noon at the corner of Butler and Lindenwald avenues.
“It’s always a fantastic success. We get really cool cars from all over the Delaware Valley,” Wahl Kunzier said.
Arts and Music Fest
The 2025 Ambler Arts & Music Festival will round out the slate of events as tens of thousands people descend on the borough taking in the sights and sounds ranging from Motown to Reggae. It’s scheduled to take place from 6:30-11 p.m. on Friday, June 13 and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, June 14.
“It’s even more popular than we had suspected. I think it’s great for the community,” Wahl Kunzier said, citing cell service data revealing one day from the 2024 event recorded 22,000 people.
Ten bands are expected to perform throughout the weekend, accompanied by a number of food trucks and roughly 75 artisan arts and craft vendors ranging from pottery to jewelry.
“It’s fun. It’s free. It’s outside if you don’t feel like hanging out in the crowds, you can eat from a food truck if you feel like it,” Wahl Kunzier said.She stressed the economic driver the events bring to the town. “It’s a bolster to our community, to the communities surrounding us.”
Wahl Kunzier recommended attendees of any of the borough’s spring events visit Ambler by train, parking at nearby stations such as Fort Washington and Penllyn, which are situated along SEPTA’s Lansdale-Doylestown Regional Rail line.
Wahl Kunzier marveled at the popularity of the borough that’s grown in recent years. It’s a trend she hopes will continue as she attributed amenities, including the shops, breweries, restaurants, and entertainment venues to its success.
“We have a main street and that’s something you can’t manufacture. We’re not a township, we’re a town,” Wahl Kunzier said. “We have a main street. We have an iconic building, the movie theater … that’s an anchor.”
Farmers Market
Wahl Kunzier also expressed excitement about the Ambler Farmer’s Market’s 2025 season. The Ambler Farmers Market will open from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 17 at the corner of Butler and Maple avenues.
It will continue operating on Saturdays through the end of October, Wahl Kunzier said, adding that Maple Glen residents Andrew and Kelly Gaess will be taking the reins as they wrangled more than a dozen vendors for the annual market.
“They have a whole line-up of great vendors. They’re super enthusiastic,” she said.
