Whiskey Rebellion Festival brings legions of visitors to downtown Washington
Activities for children were part of the Whiskey Rebellion Festival. (Photos by Brad Hundt)
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Visitors were able to check out an array of vendors at the Whiskey Rebellion Festival Saturday.
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Kathy Wells of East Washington was one of the demonstrators at the Meeting House on Saturday, in the midst of the Whiskey Rebellion Festival.
Bob Spisak of South Park juggles on stilts behind the Bradford House in downtown Washington Saturday.
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Historical reenactors were part of the festivities at the Whiskey Rebellion Festival in downtown Washington.
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Bill Gorby and the Musical Mercenary were among the musicians playing at the Whiskey Rebellion Festival.
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Reenactors rehearse before an appearance at the Whiskey Rebellion Festival.
There was more than one 鈥淧arty Like It鈥檚 1794鈥� T-shirt to be seen in downtown Washington Saturday afternoon, and that鈥檚 because the Whiskey Rebellion Festival was back and in full swing.
The annual celebration of the Whiskey Rebellion brought music, reenactors, courthouse tours and plenty of vendors to the community that was at the heart of the insurrection. It was the 12th year for the festival, and Tracie Liberatore, its program director and executive director of the Bradford House Historical Association, noted that weather for the festivities was just about perfect 鈥� sunny, no torrential downpours, warm, but not oppressively so.
The festival started Friday with a performance by the Washington Symphony Orchestra. This year鈥檚 event was the first time the new Meeting House was being used. Located at 182 S. Main St., it鈥檚 an extension of the Bradford House Historical Association, and was being used by individuals demonstrating old-fashioned textile techniques Saturday afternoon. On Friday, it provided space for the Whiskey and Spirits Walk.
Friday night was 鈥渧ery packed,鈥� said Kathy Sabol, a member of the festival committee and executive director of the Washington County Bar Association. She estimated that Friday night attendance was 鈥渁t least twice what it was last year.鈥�
A key event in Western Pennsylvania history, the Whiskey Rebellion happened between 1791 and 1794, when the federal government imposed a tax on all distilled spirits in order to pay off the debts incurred by the Revolutionary War. Farmers in the western part of Pennsylvania 鈥� in those days, the western edge of the frontier 鈥� rebelled, contending that the tax would eat into their profits and was an example of 鈥渢axation without representation.鈥� One of the leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion was Washington attorney David Bradford, who fled to Louisiana as federal forces were bearing down on him and other organizers of the rebellion.
Bob Spisak, a juggler from South Park, was on stilts throughout Saturday behind the Bradford House. A veteran of festivals throughout the region, he explained that the best part of an event like the Whiskey Rebellion Festival is interacting with visitors.
鈥淚 get to tell jokes and see smiles,鈥� he said.