Haverford Music Festival Adds Beer Garden

The Haverford Music Festival takes place September 7 from noon to 9:30 p.m.  at Eagle and Darby roads in Havertown.

This year, there will be four separate stages, including the big stages behind the Oakmont Administration Building and on Darby Road. There is a smaller outdoor stage on Eagle Road and a new indoor venue at the Rock on E. Eagle Road, according to event promoters. There will also be activities for kids at the Oakmont location including a giant slide.

For the first time, the festival will have its own Beer Garden co-sponsored by the Haverford Rotarians.  

“Rotary is one of the community organizations that the state will allow to apply for the LCB one-day permit for a beer garden,” said festival organizer Tom Kelly. “The club has generously offered to sponsor it.”

“Hosting the Beer Garden will be fun,” says Rotary Club president Dara Gans, “and it’s a great opportunity for us to meet new people from the area and let them know about the work Rotary does for the community.”

The Festival Beer Garden, also serving wine this year, will be located on Hathaway Lane just outside the main stage area. It will be fenced for safety and no alcohol will be allowed outside the fenced-in area, according to a press release.

All proceeds will support a special project at the Grange, one of the premier township historical sites. Roy Sandstrom, a volunteer who helps to manage the Grange, is overseeing the construction of a summer music venue at the site that is on the National Historic Register.

Several years ago, when the township Rotary was a dinner club, the members were part of the community ground swell the helped to save the Grange, originally built in the early 1700s. “I am glad we are renewing that partnership,” says Rick Crowley, longtime Rotarian. “The Grange is an undiscovered jewel in this township.”

The concrete footings for the Grange’s new amphitheater were poured on July 27 beginning the construction of a venue for  “a broad spectrum of events,” Sandstrom said.  All kinds of music, theater garden talks, even meetings and ceremonies could take place in what was considered the North Garden of the historic home, according to the event organizers.