July Is Happy Valley’s Best Welcome Wagon
From fireworks and Arts Fest to orchards, trails, and small-town traditions, here’s how to experience the valley like a local.
If you want to get to know where you live, July is one of the easiest months to start. The whole valley steps outside.
This Week Around Happy Valley: Outdoor Concerts, WE ARE Weekend, and Get to East End Social
The final full week of June brings extra people into Happy Valley, with Penn State alumni returning for WE ARE Weekend and incoming first-year students and their families beginning to arrive for summer session.
You’ll also find plenty of outdoor programs, family activities and music on the calendar. And, if you haven’t checked it out yet, make time to enjoy East End Social while you can!
Happy Valley Hacks
Twelve of us met at Pine Grove Hall on Sunday, June 7, and turned a regular summer evening into a shared Happy Valley story session. We ate, talked, and covered the walls with tip cards spelling out specific summer routines people already use in this place.
This Week Around Happy Valley: Juneteenth Celebrations and Summer Officially Arrives
Summer officially arrives this Sunday, so for once it’s not just a feeling, it’s on the calendar. Whether you want to spend the weekend listening to live music outside, taking the kids down to Bellefonte, marking Juneteenth with the community, or just finding an excuse to get out of the house, there’s a lot to choose from.
Here are some of the highlights happening around the area this week.
Happy Valley is Raising the Flag
This Summer, we mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, an occasion politicized by some (which is their right – it is, after all, a free country), but one I choose to celebrate as a milestone in our remarkably successful, still-evolving experiment in the messy business of organizing humans into something resembling civic order. Come July, many of us, whether in righteous anger or dogged optimism, will fervently wave the American flag in recognition of two and a half centuries spent pursuing a more perfect union. As we do, I’ll think back to the heyday of Fourth Fest, our region’s wonderful and widely sought-out Independence Day celebration that at one time claimed the title of world’s largest all-volunteer fireworks display. Our people are the fuel that powers our place, and the same spirit of energetic volunteerism driving the nighttime spectacle that lights up the Fourth of July will, this weekend, make possible a rapidly-growing event that’s putting another pin in Happy Valley on national maps.
This Week Around Happy Valley: Summer’s Main Events Are Kicking into Gear
With a beautiful stretch of weather, Happy Valley feels like it has officially shifted into summer mode.
There is a lot happening, and it is hard to fit it all into one weekly roundup.
That is part of why we are excited to soon launch a new version of Connect Happy Valley. In addition to this weekly roundup, we look forward to bringing you deeper dives, curated guides, and more ways to find the events that fit your interests and your schedule, while maybe introducing you to something new along the way.
For now, here are some of the highlights happening around Happy Valley this week.
This Week Around Happy Valley: Summer Games, Festivals, and Community Conversations
As usual there is a lot to choose from this week, which is a good problem to have!
This Week Around Happy Valley: Community Conversations and Plenty to Do
This week around Happy Valley brings a remarkable amount of activity including live music, family outings, outdoor events, and community gatherings.
More Than a Tournament: See Her Win Brings 575 Young Athletes to Happy Valley for Memorial Day Weekend
There are great weekends in Happy Valley all year long. But Memorial Day weekend feels different. It is the unofficial kickoff to summer when pools begin to open, patios fill up, schools wind down, and the entire region shifts into a new rhythm. And this year, Happy Valley kicks off summer with a fitting theme: See Her Win.
Boalsburg welcomes visitors to one of the nation’s most meaningful Memorial Day traditions. And across Happy Valley, you can feel summer beginning in a place many already believe is one of the best places anywhere to live, work, and play.
