Manton Street Park hosts kids’ block party, Homegrown Music Festival on Saturday

Manton Street Park and Community Garden  will host a family friendly block party and music festival on Saturday, Sept. 13 at the park on 4th and Manton streets.

The Family Funfest portion of the program takes place from 2 to 4 p.m. and feature plenty of food,  make-and-take crafts for the kids and even special visits from South Philly Food Co-Op and the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge, with the latter having an interactive table on site.

Starting at 4 p.m., the Homegrown Music Festival will begin with acoustic performances local string trio Stroke, The Jack Roses and Little Strike.

“It is absolutely free and open to the community,” said Mark Berman, President of Manton Street Park and Community Garden.

“We are trying to promote Pennsport and Dickinson Square West as a safe family friendly neighborhood, to show off our community and use this event as an opportunity, as always, to show how community increases safety and beauty of a neighborhood.”

Berman explained that Manton Street Park will also make a special announcement during the celebration.

The park will soon have a mural on the garden wall from by artist David Guinn.  “We plan to share the proposal at this event,” Berman said. “The design is very cool and innovative.” You may know Guinn’s work, he’s done a ton of murals in the city, including the “Four Seasons” series

The Homegrown Music Festival is part of a weekend long celebration of urban gardening by the African American United Fund (AAUF). According to a press release, “the Philadelphia HomeGrown Music Festival received a grant to produce the concert at 10 community gardens and farms on Friday and Saturday.”

Be sure to check out their Facebook page for more information and to hear some tunes from the performers.

– James Jennings is the founder of the blog Pennsporter — a site dedicated to exploring the neighborhood  from Washington to Snyder, the Delaware to Fourth.