Mirror photo by Shen Wu Tan Amber Mills, Mineral Point resident and Ebensburg PotatoFest attendee, bought haluski from Wolf’s Performing Arts on Saturday. She said she tries to make it to the festival every year to eat haluski and check out the arts and crafts.

EBENSBURG — A bowl of mashed potatoes floating in beef gravy and sprinkled with shredded cheese, chives, sour cream and bacon bits was just one of the delicacies at the Ebensburg 27th annual PotatoFest on Saturday.

Other PotatoFest vendors sold potato candy, gnocchi, haluski, pierogis, potato soup, sweet potato fries and other spud-inspired products in honor of the street festival.

Thousands of local and out-of-town event attendees packed the streets of downtown Ebensburg. Many lined up for carb-loaded snacks while others perused displays of handmade crafts. Some sat on hay stacks listening to musicians as they strummed their guitars and sang.

Kerin Stefanko, an instructor for Wolf’s Performing Arts, helped sell potato sundaes and haluski at the festival to raise money for the company’s dance and baton teams. They sold pierogies in the past, but wanted to come up with a different potato product to sell for the fundraiser, Stefanko said.

She added that the festival is a great event for the local community that brings more traffic to the area and ups revenue for businesses and organizations.

Joe Inzana, Cambria County Historical Society president, agreed the festival does “wonders” for local businesses. He described it as “the best event in the area” that draws people from town and out of town.

One of those out-of-town people was Lori Jennings-Harris from southern Mary­land. She said she drove about four hours to visit her daughter and decided to attend PotatoFest for the first time with her.

“I think the event helps to bring the vendors together, so it’s good for the economy. It’s good for the attendees to see the different types of crafts that are available,” Jennings-Harris said. “And it’s an opportunity for children to see all kinds of people and to bring people together.”

“The food is great,” she added, as she took a break from eating her pierogi eggroll made of potatoes, fried dough and cheese.

In addition to food and artwork sales, attendees participated in a wine tasting event hosted by the Dauntless Fire Company. An average of $70,000 is raised, with about 800 people participating, according to Renny Damin, the fire company’s financial secretary.

“We’ve always taken part in anything that the borough does,” Damin said. “It’s our way of giving thanks to the people of Ebensburg and the community.

“It’s great. It brings all these people to Ebensburg. It’s great for local businesses. It shows that the Ebensburg does a lot for their people and the community itself,” he said of the festival. “The community is very good to us. They treat us very well. This is our way of giving back.”

Event attendee Gina Carmer described the festival as a “nice event,” she said she wished it had been organized differently. She suggested putting all of the food vendors in one area and the arts and crafts vendors in another area of downtown.

Local police estimate between 20,000 and 25,000 people attend the event each year, according to Danea Koss, Ebensburg Borough Community Development director. This year, more than 200 vendors sold potatoes and other foods, crafts and artwork.