Welcome to the official site of the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival! Produced by the Johnstown Area Heritage Association.

August 5-7, 2011 -- Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Peoples Natural Gas Park
About the park The Peoples Natural Gas Park, formerly known as Festival Park, has been the permanent home of the festival (and its predecessor event, the AmeriServ Johnstown FolkFest), since 2004. Located across the river from Point Stadium and beside the Cambria Iron National Historic Landmark, the park provides a beautiful view of downtown Johnstown, including the Inclined Plane and the Johnstown Flood Museum (which is owned and operated by the festival's producer, the Johnstown Area Heritage Association). The park is bordered by the Stone Bridge made famous by the 1889 Johnstown flood and the Johnstown Urban Greenway, and stretches to the Johns Street Bridge. Since the park's purchase in 2004, the Johnstown Area Heritage Association has been working to develop it as a permanent home for the music festival and as a catalyst for more special events. On May 23, 2011, a naming ceremony was held to name the park for the Peoples Natural Gas Co., which has donated $500,000 toward the project. The completed park will include a 600-seat pavilion with stage adjacent to the Oilhouse, landscaping, restrooms, the installation of pathways and new sidewalks, ornamental fencing and gates around the perimeter, and the installation of utilities to support vending. Presiding over the park will be a 40-foot tower bearing the Peoples Natural Gas Company logo. Plans for the sign include illumination when an event is being held at the park. Construction on the park will begin in the near future and is expected to be complete by the end of 2011. The AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival is staged on the 3.5-acre park, as well as parking lots, Iron Street, and the entire area that stretches up past the train station, all the way to the Walnut Street Bridge. Park construction will not disrupt the 2011 festival; as in the past, the festival will be presented using temporary stages and infrastructure. In future years, the festival will utilize the 600-seat pavilion and other new amenities of the Peoples Natural Gas Park, as well as temporary stages and infrastructure needed to present an event of this size.
Park financing A $2 million matching grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Project was awarded to JAHA in spring 2008 for the park's development. The Peoples Natural Gas donation completes the match. Several other major grants make the project possible, including a $100,000 grant from the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation. The Johnstown Redevelopment Authority is providing matching Environmental Protection Agency Brownfield Cleanup funds. Also, the Authority was instrumental in undertaking the environmental assessment of the park and obtaining PA DEP Environmental Clearance. A grant for design costs was obtained from the Community Conservation Program, Growing Greener Fund, administered by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation. A $100,000 grant from Mark Pasquerilla assisted with initial improvements to the property, which included the removal of underground gas tanks and installation of utility infrastructure.
In 2010, Harvey and Katherine Supowitz and Carole Gigliotti donated the historic train station to the Johnstown Area Heritage Association. It will continue to be used for the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival as our sponsor lounge. In addition, it will serve as a visitors center for the Johnstown Discovery Network (which is a linked system of attractions and historic districts in the Johnstown area), as well as a venue for birthday parties, weddings, family social events and other purposes. Currently, the bathrooms in the station are being renovated with the help of JAHA board member Lee Manges and the Greater PA Regional Council of Carpenters #1419, who are donating time toward the project. Other donors to the project include William Polacek, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission; JAHA's Board of Directors; and other supporters and friends of JAHA.
Master plan The master plan for the park is by L. Robert Kimball & Associates Architects & Engineers, Inc. The master plan has been developed with input from a study committee in 2005-2006, public meetings in 2006, and individual discussions with agencies that have supported the project or might use it.
History of the park The park was originally part of Millville Borough, and included the Millville School and a stable for the Cambria Iron & Steel Company's horses. During the 1889 flood, the Stone Bridge held against the water, and flood debris collected and caught fire on the site. In the 1930s, the site was cleared for parking, a compressed air plant, and the Oil House, which distributed lubricants for the mill. Bethlehem Steel, Cambria Iron's successor, closed the majority of its Johnstown plants in the early 1990s, after which the site was largely unused.
JAHA purchased the land in 2004 as a new permanent home for the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival's predecessor event, the AmeriServ Johnstown FolkFest, and the festival has since taken place there using tents and other temporary infrastructure. On May 31, 2005, a grove of 12 large sugar maple trees was dedicated. The trees were provided by Legacy Groves of Somerset County, a program of Kiski Basin Initiatives, to memorialize the victims of Flight 93, which crashed near Somerset on Sept. 11, 2001. The grove can be seen near the Johns Street Bridge entrance to the park. They are directly beside the Johnstown Urban Greenway, which runs along the side of the park bounded by the river.
The Stone Bridge Project, which is currently under construction, will repair the bridge's facade and light it using programmable, energy-efficient LED lighting. This project will also enhance the site, and may be complete in time for the 2011 festival.
The "Accommodations, Directions" page of this Web site provides detailed driving directions to the park. The park's address is 90 Johns Street, Johnstown PA 15901.