UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In the summer of 1967, Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture and the State College Chamber of Commerce sponsored an arts event with the idea that it would encompass all of the arts in a true town-gown collaboration.
A cooperative community venture held partly on campus and partly downtown, activities would include local musical and theatrical performances, a film festival, artists in action, and a sidewalk sale and exhibition of artistic works displayed on a snow fence along the stone wall that runs parallel to College Ave.
The festival opened July 22 with Pennsylvania Gov. Raymond P. Shafer landing in a helicopter on the Old Main lawn. According to that year's fall issue of the "Penn State Alumni News," in an article by 1955 alumna Donna Clemson, the governor was "pleased and impressed" and declared the programs in theatre, music, art and film "excellent" to University President Eric Walker. The event transformed town and gown into a "giant museum-theatre-concert hall" for nine straight days. Then — as now — artists and visitors were "undaunted by capricious weather," taking cover only to "reappear when showers ended."