Mayfair Festival of the Arts, back at Cedar Crest College, Allentown, for Memorial Day Weekend, will treat visitors to something new: a musical drone show finale.

Mayfair 2025 marks the festival’s seventh year at Cedar Crest College.

Katy Kresge, Associate Vice President Campus Operations at Cedar Crest College, says the college is committed to continuing the long-standing event.

“This is a free festival with free parking put on by Cedar Crest for the community,” Kresge says, adding, “We are really proud to do this. It’s a win-win for us because we bring more people to our campus.”

Mayfair, which offers food, crafts, as well as music on two stages, runs 4 to 10 p.m. May 23 and noon to 10 p.m. May 24 and 25 on Cedar Crest’s tree-lined campus.

Kresge says Mayfair organizers are very excited about the festival’s first-ever drone show, being presented at 9 p.m. May 25 by Star Flight Drone Shows of Celebration Fireworks Inc., Slatington.

The company’s performances feature up to 100 drones flying in formation and creating patterns in the sky that are synchronized to music.

“It’s something unique and different,” Kresge says. “We were thinking about fireworks, but were worried about the noise and wanted to be a good neighbor to the community.

“They can do all sorts of neat stuff with drones. We will have the Cedar Crest College logo, animations and there will some images that are patriotic because it will be Memorial Day weekend,” says Kresge.

Mayfair will go cashless this year, Kresge says.

In previous years, visitors needed to purchase tickets to buy food and beverages. This year, visitors can use cards or other cashless systems to buy food or drink directly from vendors. Vendors will not accept cash.

Kresge says if someone comes to the festival and only has cash, they can purchase a debit card at the festival’s information booth.

“We want to make the festival cashless because it is more secure,” Kresge says.

The layout of Mayfair will be the same as last year, when the festival was consolidated on the east side of the campus.

In previous years, the Artist Market was on the west end of the campus, inside Lee’s Hall and outdoors on the lawn.

This year, the nearly 50 artists will be inside Tompkins College Center in the dining hall and outside lining the quad.

The Main Stage will return to the quad. The Blaney Performance Patio, which features solo acts and duos, will be in front of Blaney Hall.

New this year will be a tent where visitors can sit and listen to the music across from the Blaney Performance Patio.

“That way, our visitors can take a break from the sun, hopefully not from the rain,” Kresge says.

Kresge says many of the Mayfair fan-favorite bands such as The Large Flowerheads, Go Go Gadjet, Philadelphia Funk Authority and Jimmy and the Parrots, will be back on the Main Stage. New this year, Erin Kelly, who has performed in past years as a solo act on the smaller stage, will have her full band on the Main Stage.

For children, Frankie’s Fun Zone, presented by Crayola, returns, as does The Baum School of Art, which will have a tent offering crafts and coloring. Other activities for children will include inflatable attractions, a rock-climbing wall and bungie bounce.

This year’s artists in the Artist Market offer a variety of handmade items, including jewelry, home décor, fine art, photography fabric art, wood carving and candles.

Highlights include drum painted T-shirts by Georgie LeHoop Drum Artist; knitted toys, sweaters, succulent plant pots and keychains by Hello Fluff; freeze-dried candy and vinegars by Rainbow Concoctions; spoons, cutting boards and spatulas made from Pennsylvania black cherry wood by Chester P. Basil; artisan soap and body-care products by Noraa Body Love; gourmet wine slushy mixes by Nectar of the Vine; scented candles by LilyBean Cottage Scents, and toys and wearable art by SumSum Crochets.

There will be plenty to eat with 17 food stands, including returning favorites such as Heaven On A Bun, Take a Taco, Puerto Rican Culture Association, Greek Street, JR’s London Broil and E-Z Concessions.

New this year will be Kou Kitchen, serving African food including grilled peanut butter spareribs, Bacon on a Stick, with a variety of dipping sauces, and Pretzel Revolution, with stuffed pretzel sandwiches and snacks.

Ice cream, frozen banana whip, pie and donuts are some of the sweet treats that will be available from Bananarama, The Udder Bar, Pie in a Cone and new vendors Ski’s Hawaiian Shave Ice and Portia’s Donuts & Bobas.

For those 21 and over, there will be a selection of beer, as well as wine from Franklin Hill Vineyards and Cardinal Hollow Winery.

“One of the things that I am excited about this year is our friends at Bru Daddy’s brewed a beer specifically for the festival,” Kresge says. “The name of the beer is Mayfair Summer Splash. It is a fruited blonde ale with apricot and tangerine.”

The new beer will be on tap at Brü Daddy’s Brewing Company, Allentown, leading up to the festival, and will be available on draft at Mayfair.

In 2018, Cedar Crest College took over Mayfair as a way to support the community and introduce people to the college’s campus, which is a nationally-registered arboretum with more than 150 species of trees. The festival took a year off in 2020 because of the pandemic, but returned in 2021.

Proceeds from the festival goes to provide student scholarships at Cedar Crest.

Information: cedarcrest.edu/mayfair