The Reisterstown Festival began in 1985 and was centered around the historic district and Franklin Middle School (FMS) grounds along Main Street.  This was a natural site location for a festival in a town with a rich history and a quaint but growing local business district with structures dating back to the 1700s.  With so much to celebrate and extremely generous support of area businesses, the Festival was a quick hit. It was able to begin and grow many of its present traditional and defining elements at this site. Still, as time passed, new county regulations and the Festival’s growth challenged some of our basic features and plans.  Eventually, past organizers were forced to deal with these issues, and the result was a venue change to our current Hannah More Park location (across and a few steps north of Franklin High School)- a mile south of the original FMS site.

Specifically, in the mid-1990s, new Baltimore County Public School (BCPS) policies were established, which would have prohibited continuing our fireworks show or our beer garden at Franklin Middle School. The Festival Committee in place back then examined options and debated extensively how to address this unsustainable conflict between BCPS’s new rules and our operations- and they were also facing related complaints related to lack of available parking and our growth (crowd issues) from various residents near FMS, as well as attendees and nearby businesses.  They looked for alternatives for the most affected features (which are still two of the most popular defining features of the Reisterstown Festival!  It’s not unusual for thousands of people to gather in and around Hannah More Park to see the fireworks show- many of them enjoying their favorite beverages and bands in our extremely popular Beer Garden.) They realized that the Beer Garden is a popular attraction that brings out and keeps adult attendees entertained while bringing in critical income for the festival – it was and still is an essential fundraiser for our self-funded festival.   While the FMS site was an endearing way many enjoyed the sights and commerce of Reisterstown’s unique historic district-, in the end, essential and defining features of the Festival needed to be eliminated to stay at FMS, and crowd issues and parking becoming threats to future festivals, the Festival Committee eventually faced reality: the Festival could not remain at FMS and be successful. A permanent move to the grounds of Hannah More Park was voted on and approved.

Did you know?: The Festival Fireworks Show is not just a fireworks show- it’s scheduled to coincide with the Festival’s headliner band performing on the Main Stage, the permanent bandshell located on the fields behind Hannah More School.  During Festival Weekend, this stage is adjacent to the Beer Garden and is one of the best close-up vantage points to see the fireworks!  Every year, we offer some of the most talented, popular, and acclaimed bands anywhere.  Whether this top-feature band is from here in Reisterstown, Baltimore, Annapolis, DC, or beyond, they provide the “soundtrack” to the fireworks.  They love it, and we do our best to make every year’s Saturday night fireworks/concert an event you’ll treasure and remember for years to come!  Don’t miss it!

Tip: Arrive early for the fireworks if you want to have better chances to park inside the Festival grounds at Hannah More Park.  While many nearby parking options exist, our onsite parking is the closest available parking but is limited and can “sell out” during peak festival hours.  We request a donation for onsite parking to help us fund current and future festivals. Thank you to all who donated!

The current Hannah More Park location solved all the critical issues and immediately offered numerous benefits: It’s conveniently located along Reisterstown Road- 1 mile east of I-795 exit 7 (Franklin Blvd) and 1 mile south of the Historic District.  Thousands of potential festival goers live within walking/biking distance of the park, and the rest have easy access via major adjacent roads and highways that converge near or next to the site.  With extensive parking spaces onsite and nearby and plenty of transportation options, the Festival was able to ensure that driving and using the Maryland Transportation Authority (MTA) bus service were excellent options to get to the Festival (except, like at FMS, during Festival Parade hours when MD140 and thus the main festival vehicle entrance and bus lines are temporarily unavailable).  Hannah More Park immediately also gave the Festival a large permanent and lighted bandshell (our current Main Stage) and all the amenities of the largest public park in town (Reisterstown’s largest public playground, picnic tables, benches, etc), as well as many additional acres for expansion. This positioned the festival where it could continue growing and prosper for years.

At the end of the day, we are grateful to the members of that past Festival Committee and the future they secured for the Festival.  No other Reisterstown sites (then or since) were identified that could meet all the Festival’s needs, or that would have exceeded Hannah More Park’s benefits and features, so it was down to the Park or a pared-down Festival offering significantly fewer features to attract or entertain visitors.  The Reisterstown Festival might not even exist today without the hard work and choices made when this issue was presented.  Thanks to this move, the Reisterstown Festival is now in its fourth decade and has entertained hundreds of thousands of festival patrons over the years!