This fall, and all of life during the current COVID pandemic, has been a little busier than anticipated. The good news is we were able to get out and record as well as take a handful of trips. The bad news is we are slightly behind on those, but they will start to open up now that we are getting into the cooler weather. And besides, maybe the best time to talk about the late summer and early fall sun would be when we are seeing near freezing days over the coming weeks! Speaking of near freezing days, the event we were able to go to and highly recommend you check out was the festival of trees.
Location
The festival of trees is a fundraiser for Allegheny Health Network. Typically, this is an indoor event where individuals can actually bid on decorated Christmas trees. However, this year is obviously a different one. In fact, it’s a drive-through event in Fairview Business Park where you can stay in your car and practice being socially distant the entire time.
Fairview Business Park is located just off of Route 98, just north of the I-90 exit. Or, you can take U.S. route 20 and then head south onto Avonia Road, just a short drive past the Fairview Elementary, Middle and High Schools. The event itself starts inside of the park, so just turning in and following Klier drive will take you where you need to go.
Property Description:
The property itself is a business park with a main road that heads back and circles around a pond. There are multiple commercial and office buildings built around the park, and one side of the road is closed so you don’t need to worry about oncoming traffic. Basically, all that you need to do is drive up and slowly drive through to see the lights, scenes and other characters at the event.
Things to do:
This is a great combination of characters, individual scenes (both fixed in place and with moving characters who are dressed up), and light displays. There are some very festive scenes, some princesses and heroes that the kids will love, and even a Santa and Mrs. Claus. While you are there, they even suggest you listen to 99.1 FM on your radio to hear the Christmas music as you drive through. The entire event will vary slightly depending on how quickly you drive (or the speed of the car in front of you), but all in all, this was about a 20-minute drive through.
Who Can Go:
Because the speed was reasonably slow (less than 20 mph), you are able to see most all of the sites. This means it’s great for children or the elderly as well. And while it may be a little bit colder, the weather allows for individuals to roll their windows down and interact with the characters who are present.
One point to note, because this event is only offered for this weekend (November 27th – 29th, 2020) from 5:00-9:00PM, it is crucially important to get there early. We pulled into the park at about 4:45, and were probably around 15 to 20 cars deep from the first car to go through. They allow the next car to go every 20-30 seconds or so, so it meant we were able to “start” at about ten minutes after 5:00, and were exiting the display area by about 5:30PM. However, as we were exiting, we saw cars more than a mile down the road to the entrance of the park.
Final Thoughts:
Because this is a charity event, the cost is displayed on the website, but for a car with 10 or less passengers, the total cost is $20.00. It is going towards helping Allegheny Health Network build a Healthy Food Center for nutritional support. Also, it is nice to see different participants involved and sponsoring different displays, and there is even a contest to vote for which one was your favorite. This certainly is a short event for the fact it is only running three days total. But if you consider the ability to get out and let your children have fun while doing something new for the holidays, this is an event to try.
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Wander Erie 