Westmoreland Heritage Trail officials add new locations to Trail Towns Festival

When the Westmoreland Heritage Trail Towns Festival kicks off this year, it will add two new towns to the mix, with events happening throughout the day in Trafford, Monroeville, Export and Slickville.

“The first festival was in 2019,” said Vicki Rudge, public relations chair for the Westmoreland Heritage Trail. “The trail hadn’t made it to Export yet, so we partied in Trafford and Slickville that day.”

Monroeville’s Saunders Station trailhead has been added this year, “because they’ll have people there sharing information about the bridge that’s going to come across from Valley Park in Monroeville and connect to the trail,” Rudge said.

The park is located just north of the Saunders Station trailhead.

A trail representative also will be on hand in Export to talk about the 700-foot extension of the trail in the borough, which is slated to take place this summer using grant funding left over from the previous phase of construction.

“We’re trying to keep the public aware of the growth and what’s happening along the trail,” Rudge said.

The trail runs uninterrupted from Trafford to Export, and from Delmont to Saltsburg, and trail officials are working through the final phase, which includes the challenge of crossing Route 66.

June 4 will be an all-day party, beginning at 10 a.m. in Trafford’s B-Y Park. At 1 p.m., the party moves to Export, and at 4 p.m. it will kick off in Slickville, with a full day of music, food, auction baskets, prize drawings and more.

Rudge’s husband, Stan, said trail officials have also recently received a grant from the Laurel Highlands Conservation Group to fund a safety initiative, installing sandwich boards along the trail with the trail rules and guidelines posted.

“We’d posted them in a few places, but people didn’t usually stop to read them,” Stan said. “Hopefully, these will draw some more attention.”

During the festival, there will be plenty of music to draw attention, with various ensembles from the Penn-Trafford Community Band performing in Trafford and Monroeville.

“We’ll have the woodwind ensemble at 10:30 a.m. and the flute ensemble playing at 11:30 a.m., both at B-Y Park,” said Ron Rometo, who founded the Penn-Trafford Community Band in 2007. “Then we’ll have our trombone ensemble playing from 11 a.m. to noon at the Saunders Station trailhead.”

Rometo said band members were well received at the inaugural festival in 2019.

“We got a lot of comments from people who thought it was really neat to hear some live music as they were coming up the trail,” Rometo said. “It’ll be fun to do it again.”

A DJ will provide entertainment in both Export and Slickville, Rudge said.

“We’re looking forward to a nice large crowd,” she said. “We get a lot of compliments on Facebook thanking us for what we do, and it would be great to see some of those folks in person coming out for the festival.”

The Trail Towns Festival will take place at B-Y Park in Trafford (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.), Saunders Station trailhead in Monroeville (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.), and along the trail in downtown Export (1-4 p.m.) and in Slickville (4-7 p.m.).

Registration is $10 (children under 10 years old are free) and can be done at WestmorelandHeritageTrail.com or through the trail’s Facebook page.