VIRTUAL STAY-AT-HOME FIREFLY FESTIVAL

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The 8th Annual PA Firefly Festival and all Seasonal Firefly Events for the 2020 season are cancelled. But wait… there’s an alternative to the in-person festival and firefly guided tours.  This year, we will present a Virtual Stay-at-Home PA Firefly Festival.  

Using today’s technology, we can still celebrate the joy of the firefly season and continue to educate the public to the best of our ability during this time of social distancing. Some of the scheduled 2020 firefly experts and artists will now participate in a virtual way.  In other words, they will submit photos, videos and slide show presentations which will appear on our website pafireflyevents.org, and our PAFF YouTube Channel, Instagram and/or Facebook pages on June 27th.

The 2020 Virtual PAFF is still a celebration of the joy of fireflies.  With the support of the Forest County Tourism Grant and VisitPAGo.com, we are urging folks to STAY HOME, and take advantage of all of our Social Media and online information to learn about the fireflies in their own backyards.  You can also participate in the science of fireflies by becoming a “Firefly Watcher” on the Firefly Watch Citizen Science Project at the massaudubon.org website. You would be contributing greatly to the world-wide database and helping to advance the science of fireflies.  The virtual Art After Dark sponsored by the Elk County Council of the Arts and Pennsylvania Partners of Art, will feature a presentation by the United Nations Ambassador of Art, Mr.  Ibiyinka Alao, photos and video by world-renowned photographer Radim Schreiber and original music by Pennsylvania’s favorite troubadour, Matt Miskie. Of course, you will be able to order our popular PAFF t-shirts online, designed by Amalia Tonsor, and donations will be accepted through PayPal to help with costs and future festivals.

During the firefly season, we will continue to monitor and conduct our summer research here in Kellettville and throughout Western PA.  Ms. Valerie Kuppek, a rising Senior in Biology from Dickinson College, is our Summer Research Intern. She will be monitoring our local fireflies, and helping to produce a Virtual Firefly Walk once the Synchronous Firefly season begins here in June. We hope to stream, or at least post, the videos online, and we hope you will be able to "catch" the fireflies from the safety and comfort of your home at your convenience.

While we held out hope for this summer as long as we could, we feel strongly this is the right decision.  Our priority is the health and safety of our community and the public. We stress using the “Firefly Etiquette” protocol we have developed over the years.  We hope you will consider your actions or behavior and how it affects everyone including fireflies. We hope to be back in 2021 stronger and better for the experience.

New Website Address

Please take note: We have made a change to the website address, or URL, to better reflect the broad scope of Pennsylvania Firefly Festival's current and future mission.  The new domain is pafireflyevents.org.  We believe this change is more descriptive of the numerous firefly events we offer throughout Forest County and across Pennsylvania each firefly season.  So, reset your bookmarks. You can still find us on Facebook, Twitter and follow this blogspot with all the same links as you did before or email us at pafireflyfestival@gmail.com for more information.

We are optimistically continuing are plans for June firefly events and the festival.  So, STAY HOME, for now, so we can see you in June!

Thank You for Giving!

The 2020 Bridge Builders Week of Giving has concluded and we topped out at $3925!  Almost double our goal.  Thank you to everyone who opened their wallets and made a donation in these uncertain times.  We appreciate your support of our PAFF Summer Research Intern and firefly Educational Programs for this coming firefly season.  We are optimistically looking forward to warm summer nights and lots of fireflies.  Until then, stay well.

2020 Bridge Builders Week of Giving, March 16-20.

Despite the COVID-19 restrictions our annual fundraising event with The Bridge Builders Community Foundation during the Week of Giving is still underway. The good news it doesn't require you to leave the comfort and safety of your home to support our firefly educational programs and Summer Research Interns.  You can contribute to the PA Firefly Festival, Inc online during this week and help us to multiply the donations.  Your contributions of $25 or more will be collected through the Bridge Builders Foundation and then distributed to us with the chance of generating matching funds from other organizations to help us increase the dollars.  Click here to make your tax-deductible donation between March 16 and 20. 

Thank you!

COVID-19 Response

In the grand scheme of things, we know that the PA Firefly Festival doesn't match up to cancelled sports tournaments, and the economic crisis. However, we have been watching and considering our options since January. The festival is still several months away. We don't want to be hasty, but we also know people are anxious and want information. So be assured, we are hoping for the best and planning for the worst.

The best-case scenario would be that the measures the Commonwealth is currently taking to contain the spread of COVID-19 will save the day, and by the end of April, the restrictions will be lifted and no longer necessary for June events. We are proceeding with the plans for the 8th Annual PA Firefly Festival and scheduling firefly guided tours for small groups in June and July at various locations. Registrations for the firefly guided tours will open May 1st. We will wait until June before making any decisions on cancellations.

In the meantime, please follow all the health and safety guidelines. Stay positive.