2nd Street Festival draws thousands of people to Northern Liberties

The 2nd Street Festival brought thousands of people to Northern Liberties Sunday to partake in everything the neighborhood has to offer, such as food, drinks, and music.

Roughly 200 vendors, including 22 food trucks and 55 local artists, were lined up from Girard Avenue to Spring Garden.

Standard Tap owner William Reed has helped organize the annual festival since it began 15 years ago. He said it’s been amazing to watch the neighborhood change and grow over the years.

“It wasn’t always obvious that Philadelphia was on a continued upswing, but we’ve really seen an amazing renaissance,” Reed said. “[Northern Liberties] went from about 5,000 people back in 2000, to almost 10,000 now. And in the next five years, they’re predicting there’s another 9,000 people coming into the neighborhood. That’s amazing, right? It’s a pretty crazy big transformation.”

Live music could be heard across two stages during the entire event, including the duo, Dead Roses. Band member, Tierney Greene, said it’s great to see different acts attract the crowds of people walking by.

“People coming together for just the sake of coming together, I feel like is really cool and important,” Greene said. “It’s weird, like we all live so close to each other … but sometimes you don’t necessarily meet the people around you. So having a central place to do that, I feel is really cool.”

Reed said the festival is designed to do just that — to bring together longtime and new residents to experience the neighborhood “in a different way.”

Eva Sturtz is a fine artist who has been doing oil paintings full time since the pandemic began. She said events, like 2nd Street Festival, provide artists avenues to directly connect with their customers.

“It doesn’t have to be someone that liked something like that on Instagram,” Sturtz said. “It’s just natural discovery of people walking by, and it might just be someone here and had no idea this was going on today.”

Later this year, 2nd Street will be hosting the September Night Market on Sept. 28 from 5- 10 p.m, and the October Night Market on Oct. 26 from 5-10 p.m.