Kettle Creek Music Festival: a first-timer’s recollections
(This is part one of a three part series on the Kettle Creek Music Festival and the nonprofit veterans organizations that were beneficiaries of funds collected at the KCMF.)
By Christopher Miller
CROSS FORK, PA – Enormous logs that would take hours to burn, the sounds of country, folk, and rock tunes, and the smells of BBQ pork and chicken filled the air at the non-profit Kettle Creek Music Festival this past weekend at Quiet Oaks Campground in Cross Fork.
My wife and I had never been to the festival, so as a first-timer we were treated to all of the wonderful things that make this a must-go-to annual event.
Now in its 22nd year, the KCMF has certainly made a name for itself in the north central Pennsylvania region or as others put it, the northern PA/southern NY tier.
Playing on one stage and beginning on Thursday evening, the festival welcomed just over one dozen performers from all over the northeast with Pennsylvania and New York drawing the most acts. While attending the festival, we heard from bands 7 Mile Run, Country Traction, and Buckskin Whiskey.
The midway was lined with arts and crafts artisans, food vendors galore, local organizations selling chances to win numerous items including a Yeti cooler and a canoe full of booze, and some very special non-profits providing information on their organization.
Nonprofit organizations Hunts for Healing of Laceyville, PA and LEEK Hunting and Mountain Preserve of Oswayo were the beneficiaries of money collected during the event.
“We are a nonprofit helping nonprofits,” said Carla Flack, owner of Quiet Oaks Campground. “We’ve been organized as a nonprofit since 2012 and veterans are close to our heart, so we thought it would be appropriate to reach out to these organizations this year to see if they would be interested in being a part of KCMF.”
In fact, since 2013 KCMF has donated a whopping $65,821.16 to local fire, ambulance, boy scouts, and military veteran support organizations throughout the years.
“The money taken in is for others,” Carla said. “We put some aside to help be able to put on this festival year after year, but the majority is donated back to these organizations.”
The scent of burning wood and sawdust filled the air as we walked back to our vehicle, but the sounds of music reverberated off of the mountains in the distance.
The KCMF is well worth visiting and pitching a tent if you are looking for a unique event to pass a summer weekend by. And if you’re lucky, you may experience the unseasonably cooler summer temperatures we endured over the weekend – hovering around low-70s during the day, and low-50s in the evening.
There’s something for everyone at the Kettle Creek Music Festival.
