FLOOD CITY FESTIVAL 2023

The festival’s roots go all the way back to 1989, when the Johnstown Area Heritage Association (JAHA) worked with community groups to produce the 100-year commemoration of the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889. One of the most popular events of the year-long commemoration was a large street fair in the historic Cambria City neighborhood.

Based in part on the success of that event, JAHA, City and Commonwealth officials successfully raised the money to bring the National Folk Festival to Johnstown in 1990 for a three-year run. Again, the festival was held in Cambria City over Labor Day weekend. JAHA became the sole producer of the event, which was renamed the AmeriServ Johnstown FolkFest in 1994 when AmeriServ Financial became the event’s title sponsor.