The All-Community Picnic & Fair being presented the Montgomery Cultural Center 1860 House on Sunday, Sept. 30, will be offering continuous arts and entertainment by more than 30 performers and artists, as well as picnic-style hot and cold foods, beverages and homemade desserts for sale.
The Picnic & Fair will take place, rain or shine, from noon to 5 p.m. at The 1860 House in the house’s library, under a tent, and on the lawns and field.
Children’s attractions will include games, races, crafts workshops, a petting zoo, face painting and clowns.
‡ Tent performers will include The Saras, a folk rock group; the Blawenburg Dixieland Band; "Four Instance" (The Sweet Adelines), Xiao Qing Li of The Beijing Opera; "Theremin: The Voice Electric" featuring Scott Marshall; jazz trumpeter Greg Strauss; the Princeton Garden Statesmen Barbershop Harmony Chorus; Allure (pop duet); the Hopewell Valley Chorus; the Sourland Hills Actors Guild and the Montgomery Township Summer Band.
‡ Library performers include the Hopewell Orchestra; the Wren Trio (classical music); the All Star Dance Academy; storyteller Doris Kiney; poet Herman Ward; the Griggstown Lock Rapper Dancers; the Woodland Consort Recorder Trio; Flamenco dancing featuring Ghislaine Pasteur, and Princeton Opera.
‡ Lawn attractions include art demonstrations; Princeton Ballet School dancers; Princeton’s Handsome Molly dancers; the Shandygaff Garland Dancers; the Millstone River Morris Dancers; a juggling workshop and a Tai Chi Chuan demonstration.
‡ Field attractions include River Walks conducted by Montgomery Students for Environmental Action and a fly-casting and fly-tying demonstration by the Ernest Schweibert chapter of Trout Unlimited.
A highlight of the day will be the auction of a quilt designed by Sarah Roberts and produced by the Dancing Needles Quilt Guild.
Proceeds of the Picnic & Fair will benefit the future Cruser Barn Performing Arts Center at The 1860 House. The project will re-erect the Cruser Barn (circa 1880) on the grounds of The 1860 House. The barn will not only function as a performance venue but as an architectural exhibition of traditional mortise and tenon construction.
Advance-sale tickets, at reduced prices, are available at The 1860 House or can be ordered through www.1860house.org. The 1860 House is at 124 Montgomery Road, Skillman.
Advance-sale tickets are priced at $10 for adults and $5 for children age 12 and under. Children age 2 and under will be admitted free. At the gate Sept. 30, tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for children age 12 and under.
For more information, call (908) 921-3272. The 1860 House’s Web site gives performing times and locations for each attraction.

