LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) — The Long's Park Fine art Festival is a Labor Day weekend tradition in Lancaster Canton. Started 43 years ago as a fundraiser for the Long'south Park Amphitheater Foundation, the festival attracts hundreds of artists from around the country to share their crafts with the customs.

Rick Faulkner's father started the beginning Long'due south Park Art Festival in the late 1970s. Faulkner, simply out of grad school, was roped into helping run that showtime festival at the terminal minute when his begetter injured himself and couldn't make information technology to the consequence, and "I've been here e'er since," he said.

This is technically the 43rd annual Long's Park Art Festival, but due to COVID-19, the fine art show looked a lot unlike last year.

"We wanted to continue the tradition that we've held it every year, and then we had one painter and one potter who came out, and on the Friday morning — which is like this morning — they gear up their booths, and we had a couple of patrons that came, I retrieve a couple of pieces were sold," Faulkner described.

This year the number of artists is back to normal, increased from two to 200. Those 200 artists are selected from more than than 600 applicants, Faulkner said.

Luke Voytas, a woodworker from Kempton, Pennsylvania, is ane of the artists involved in the 2022 festival. Voytas has also been part of previous Long'southward Park Art Festivals, too.

Luke Voytas, 2022 Long's Park Art Festival

Being back at in-person fine art shows feels a fiddling odd, but "information technology's practiced to be out," Voytas said. "I get a real sense from everybody I speak to that they're excited to be out. People seem motivated also to buy and interact, so it'south been skilful."

During the pandemic, which shuttered art shows and stalled in-person business, Voytas explored new art forms, delving into blacksmithing and tending an expanding garden.

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Throughout the shutdown, the community remained supportive. "People actually wanted to support artists and small business," Voytas said, "and so specially very early on in the pandemic, people were really reaching out trying to go piece of work from me. Sales on my website were very potent, so it worked out."

Emerging ceramic artist Chelsea McMaster, who is a new fine art prove exhibitor, had a different experience, trying to enter the art world correct as the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Chelsea McMaster, 2022 Long's Park Art Festival

"This is my first big show," McMaster said. "Right out of graduation, I had decided that I was going to get all-in, and I had practical to many shows, got into a few of them, and they all got canceled. So I had to intermission everything."

McMaster "got a real job" and moved to New Jersey during the pandemic. For the Millersville University graduate, participating in the Long'south Park Art Festival is a kind of homecoming, and it's also an unpausing.

"It feels practiced. It's starting to feel like I'm dorsum to where I should have been," McMaster said. She'due south nervous but excited to participate in the festival.

For McMaster, Voytas, and other artists, the Long's Park Art Festival is an opportunity to go back to sharing art with the community.

"There are artists that are saying this is their first show in two years. They're really excited to be back, to see the public and put their art out in that location for people to view, relish, and to buy," Faulkner said.

The Long's Park Art Festival features woodwork, ceramics, photography, paintings, prints, jewelry, clothing, and more. In that location are also food and beverage options at the result. It's open Friday, Sept. 3, until 6, Sabbatum, Sept. 4, from x-six, and Sunday, Sept. 5, from 10-5. Tickets can exist purchased at the gate or online here.