Saturday’s Berlin Heritage Festival promises a portal into the past, with displays, artifacts, and live reenactments.
Organizer Pat Diniar said the event began with a group of “history-minded” people who felt the town’s history was going under-appreciated.
“We’ll party at the top of the hat, but nobody remembers the start of the town, which was 1868,” she said. “There were no elected officials, it was run by a committee until 1897, 1898 when they elected their first mayor, who was John Pitt, who we’re going to honor.”
More than a dozen vintage vehicles will be displayed including a 1918 touring car owned by Jack Benny, Reece Cropper’s 1941 Cadillac, a 1957 Thunderbird and fire trucks from the 1920s.
Dinair said guests will see tandem bikes and historical vegetable trucks, as well as artisans churning, hooking, spinning, weaving, lacing, quilting and knitting, all in period costumes.
Karen McClure, president of the Ocean Pines Players, wrote the historical segments.
“We’re doing little short plays, like 10-15 minutes long,” McClure said. “Each of these little plays depicts a different period in the history of Berlin.”
“Decoration Day,” a view into 1920’s Berlin that includes a “generational clash” between Edwardian mothers and their flapper daughters, begins at noon.
“Civic Duty,” set in 1942 just after the United States entered World War II, bows at 1:30, followed by “On the Road,” set in 1959, at 3 p.m.
McClure said the segments, which will be stated near the Atlantic Hotel, took months of research in order to produce.
Charlie Flagiello, performing as “Uke Ellington,” will play period-appropriate music between performances.
Capping off the event at 4 p.m. is a performance by the Pine Tones Chorus on the steps of the Atlantic Hotel.
“We’re acting out the times of this country, and we’ll have things about the history of national posted all throughout the streets,” Diniar said.
“It’s an enormous amount of research, but I’m fortunate in that I love history and I have a group of people around me who love history…It should be a nice day, and we hope everyone enjoys themselves and maybe learns a little something too,” she continued.
The Heritage Festival runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A rain date is set for Sunday.
