The SCA invites the community to its 35th annual Canal Day celebration at Lock 60 and St. Michael’s Park in Mont Clare, PA (right across the river from Phoenixville). This day full of fun along the Schuylkill Canal Park includes food, music, kids' games & crafts, competitive activities such as the Schuylkill River Trail Run, Horseshoe Tournament,  the Canoe/Kayak 5-Miler Water Trail Race, the International and World Renowned Canal Joust. A parking donation will be charged instead of an entrance donation.  But no donations will be refused. Event parking is available at St. Mikes Park at the end of Jacobs Street in Mont Clare.  Entrance gates will be set up on the Towpath and at St. Mike's.  Please be advised, Towpath Road will be closed to vehicular traffic, starting at 8:30 AM until 5:00 PM, A handicap-accessible shuttle bus will bring people back and forth, free-of-charge, from the parking area all day. 

Registration Info:

 - Canal Joust – $15.00
One of the highlights of the day! Knock your opponent off a narrow platform and into the Canal. Best two out three wins. Men's and Women's classes

 - Kids Fishing Derby
Recreational Canoe / Kayak 5-Miler Water Trail Race – $20.00

- Canoe and/or Kayak 5-mile water trail loop race - paddling downstream in the river, a short portage, and paddling upstream in the canal. Start time 11 AM. Separate classes for racers and recreational.

- Schuylkill River Trail Run – $25.00
The 5-mile trail run along the Schuylkill River and through the ravines. The run continues to be an annual memorial to Denny Porrini and all he's has done for the Association.

- Sprint Canoe/Kayak Race – $20.00
5-mile loop on Schuylkill River and Canal. Portage required between river and canal.
Volunteer for Canal Day

Registrations will also be accepted the day of the event starting at 8 AM at St. Michael's Park, run starts at 9 AM at Lock 60. The registration will require you to provide your sex; M or F, and age to place you in the appropriate run categories.
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The SCA is still looking for volunteers. The day starts around 7AM and goes until about 6PM. They can be contacted via website - schuylkillcanal.org

The annual Strawberry Festival, benefiting the Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area, will take place on Saturday, June 10th from 10 AM - 3 PM. They will have a light lunch and plenty of ice cream and strawberries available, as well as a bake sale, balloon sculptures for the kids by Balloon Magic, and Ted the Fiddler. There's also a flea market that opens at 8 AM, so shop early and stay for some delicious strawberries!

The Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area is located at the corner of Church and Main streets in Phoenixville, PA.

The Phoenixville Art & Street Festival 2017, on this Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM, was organized by Firebird Festival co-founder Henrik Stubbe Teglbjaerg. He says... 
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"Let’s feature our town with a Block Party. When we all put our efforts together, we have a lot to offer with our unique retail stores and restaurants.

Anybody from town are welcome to put up a booth. A $50 fee can help pay for performers, fee to the Borough and advertisements. A criterion for a booth is that you can offer a quality product or service that can add to the bigger picture. Advertisement is kept to a minimum. We want to inspire each other, so quality and creativity is the focus. We want colors, fun, inspiration and happy people.

We will have space for about 50 vendors, 18 of them from the 200 block. We can add out of town vendors if needed for $50 a vendor space.

Are you interested in supporting, participating, or otherwise getting involved? And if so, how do you see yourself participating? We will continue to share out event details here. Please send us your ideas and thoughts to: henrik11@verizon.net, or call 610 933 9199. We welcome your interest and involvement!

So far, we have:
• Rich from Artisans Café is going to sit out on the sidewalk together with his potter college Nell Hazinski with their potter’s wheel
• Orion will have “Christmas in June”, gathering gift item, which they will give to those in need
• Steel City will have music from their stage for the duration of the festival.
• Zen Village Wellness center will offer chair massage
• Phoenix Village Art Center will also be present (details to come)
• Diving Cat Gallery and the Community Eco center (details to come)

For the Restaurants and Bars, we hope they will occupy the spaces in front of their establishments, to serve us all. We may add 2 food vendors, if deemed necessary. We will have music close to Gay street, and various street performers spread around town.

The stores and establishments outside the 200 block are also encouraged to have a larger presence, by moving out on the sidewalk, or having special events. Special events can be advertised on our program, poster, and with way finding signs.

Suggestions and questions welcome!"

RSVP HERE

The annual Chester County Pride Festival returns to Reeves Park this Saturday June 3rd. Join LGBT Equality Alliance and the Chester County community for an afternoon of music, food, vendors, family activities, giveaways, and more! PrideFest is open to all - come as you are.

Entertainment Schedule (schedule may vary):
12:15 PM Introductions and Emcee, James Bradford
12:30 PM Announce Grand Marshall and Pride Ambassadors
12:45 PM 2016 Pride Queen Carl Max as Whitney Houston
1:00 PM Diamond Entertainment Management Co. Presents House of Legends
2:00 PM Touch the Sky featuring Rachel Xaviera
2:40 PM Comedian James Bradford
3:00 PM Singer, Songwriter Lori Ann Strunk
3:45 PM Forge Theatre Company
4:00 PM Offline
4:45 PM Wrap Up and Announcements

On Sunday, June 4th the 3rd Annual Pride Gala caps off the weekend with entertainment by LGBT comedian Matteo Lane, a musical performance by Lauren Ferretti, DJ Biff Piner providing sweet jams, and youth speaker Ari Bowman (Transgender Youth Advocate). Enjoy a cocktail hour with cash only bar, three course plated dinner, raffle prizes, silent auction, music, dancing, and special guests. Dress Code is dressy, but comfortable (no jeans, shorts, or tank tops).

Tickets are $75 each. Dinner entrée is to be chosen at time of ticket purchase. Go HERE for more details.

Sly Fox's Taps, Tunes & Trucks will take place on Saturday, June 3rd at the Pottstown location (331 Circle - Progress Drive) and the annual FOX TROT 5K kicks off the event. Throughout the day there will be live music (band list / times below), award-winning beers on tap, and curbside cuisine from some of the area's finest food trucks. 

Here's the music lineup:

• 10:30am - John Valerio
• 12:30pm – Pepperwine
• 2:30pm – AfroBear
• 4:30pm – Pine Barons

228 Productions presents RESILIENT for another evening of excellent music, along with several other bands ($5 cover - 21+). As for Resilient, "...they refuse to allow themselves to be defined by any one style, there is an apparent affinity for grunge, punk, and prog-pop styles in their multi-layered musical arrangements." 

Set times:

• 12 AM - Resilient
• 11 PM - Swwik
• 10 PM - Pieman and the Cupcake Kid
• 9 PM - White Skunk

SWWIK marks their Phoenixville debut with "genre-bending head-rocking love-making party-starting jams," Philly fresh and in yo' face. It'll be good to see Joe Pasternack in action again, which means brotender James will likely be talking up this show to all the regulars... We hope! 

PIEMAN AND THE CUPCAKE KID is straight-up hardcore punk without guitars while WHITE SKUNK (who are from Phoenixville) plays distorted music composed on bass, keyboards, drums, baby monitors and assorted other sources of noise and feedback meshed with melodic vocalizations... It's also their very first show!

Be sure to RSVP at the Facebook Event Page

Hop Project™ No. 002 India Pale Ale is 70 IBUs and a 6.8% ABV. It will be available starting on Saturday March 13th.

Sly Fox says:

"For iteration No. 002 in our ongoing liquid experimentation project, we combined copious additions of Centennial, Simcoe, and Denali hops to create this fragrant IPA bursting with tropical fruit aromas. Do the results of this liquid experimentation lineup with our hypothesis of deliciousness? 

There’s a certain beauty to be found in impermanence and our latest creation, Hop Project™, is about finding and embracing that beauty. Each release employs a new recipe, a new brewing technique, a new hop combination, or all of the above to create a truly unique liquid experiment.

Our brewers are excited to continuously explore the universe of hop-forward beers. Each project is a chance to step out of our comfort zone and flex our creative brewing muscles by utilizing new hop varieties and utilizing innovative hopping methods. The Hop Project™ possibilities are endless.

Hop Project™ beers are available in 16oz. cans and on draft, but quantities are very limited. Be sure to keep an eye on our social media pages for the latest release announcements, because just like the beer itself, no two releases will cover quite the same ground."

A "tchotchke" can be defined as one or two things, depending on who you ask. For the sake of this article, a tchotchke is defined as "a small object that is decorative rather than strictly functional; a trinket." The newly opened store by this namesake, located at 4 Gay Street, brings those kinds of things and a whole lot more to an eccentric town.

A cool collector's paradise, Tchotchkes has a tattoo chic vibe. The owner Mike sells vintage collectibles and one-of-a-kind items that have been obtained through his own personal ten year journey of collecting. There are a ton of Horror-related items, such as a Frankenstein mask from the 1950s. He also has a passion for Rock N Roll related-items, many of which are COA (certified autographs, etc). And then there's the local artist and vendor items... Mike says, "Not only do we have my items but we also have a partnership with local artists and people wanting to sell their items on consignment. We do a lot of business on eBay, and we also set up at conventions and outdoor markets."

Many of Mike's items have been obtained via estate sales (from Maine to Florida), auctions, and "clean outs" (removing all items from a property and improving the interior conditions). Tchotchkes LLC (484.649.1111) coordinates professional commercial and residential clean outs, working with realtors, bankers, and private accounts. So far, Mike is very pleased with the cooperative business community he has planted himself in.

"Phoenixville is an incredible town," says Mike. "I think it's the model suburban town, and what every suburban town strives to be. It reminds me of when South Street (Philadelphia) was 'South Street' and I think it's even better than Manayunk and New Hope."

Tchotchkes is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 7 on Wednesday and Thursday, and on weekends noon to 9 or 10 PM (and sometimes later). Mike says, "I eventually want to be open seven days a week."