Celebrate Mt. Airy Day on Saturday

The Mt. Airy community will come together Saturday as it has for the past 43 years.  It will come together to celebrate its diversity, its food and its uniqueness.

It will come together to celebrate Mt. Airy Day.

“It was started as a way to celebrate the community’s diversity,” East Mt. Airy Neighbors Executive Director Elayne Bender said.  “The original motto was food, fellowship and fund.  That’s what we try to have this day remain about.”

Between two and three thousand people are expected to swarm the property of the Cliveden of the National Trust on Saturday, May 4, along with more than 150 vendors, food trucks and local businesses. 

So many people, in fact, that Germantown Avenue will be closed to traffic between Upsal and Johnson streets during the course of the festival from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“We need volunteers, too,” Bender said.  “Especially from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., they can help break down the event and clean up when it’s over.”

Mt. Airy Day is an entirely volunteer operation with people who have been working since last winter to make sure it goes off without a hitch.

“We have a dozen people who have been working on this non-stop,” Bender said.  “We should also have about 40 volunteers the day of the event.”

Bender added that anyone can volunteer; all they need to do is show up and approach someone wearing a staff shirt, and they will be put to work.

Mt. Airy Day is also an entirely not-for-profit event that helps bring the community together.

“We raise some money,” Bender said.  “But usually it all goes to pay for the event.  We need police help and permits, and that all costs money.  Any money that is left over gets split between the East Mt. Airy Neighbors Association and the West Mt. Airy Neighbors Association.”

Bender added, “It’s a lovely event.  There are people I only get to see once a year, and it happens at Mt. Airy Day.  It’s a good chance to see people and catch up.”