After one-year hiatus, 'witches' return to Ligonier
Oct. 24—Bicycles, buses and maybe even brooms were the preferred mode of transportation Sunday in Ligonier, as more than 1,200 "witches" from the region gathered for the town's fifth annual Witches Bike Brigade event.
Since it was created as a pre-Halloween event for women in 2016, the daylong festival offers a day for women to shop, enjoy live music, refreshments and food specials at Ligonier area businesses. The fire department even closed a portion of Fairfield Street to offer food, refreshments and games at Sunday's event.
Event coordinator Carla Arnone said that although the event was cancelled in 2020 due to covid-19, pre-registration was "as strong as ever" this year.
Although a few people might not like the event's promotion for attendees to "leave your husbands, boyfriends, significant others, children, pets and politics at home for this ladies-only gathering," Arnone counters that she believes it's also the reason the popularity increases each year.
Pre-registration this year surpassed 1,200, and the event provided bus shuttles to town and area restaurants from the Ligonier Country Market field parking area on the west side of town.
Arnone will get no argument from attendee Dawn Berkebile of Latrobe on her reason for the event's popularity.
"It's fun to dress up and have a day to enjoy by yourself with a few friends," said Berkebile, a regular attendee of the event, as she stopped in at a few stores around The Diamond.
"And it's nice to leave the children and husband at home," she added.
Berkebile and Brooke Sowers of Fairfield, another regular attendee, brought along a new "witch" to enjoy the day, Ashley Ament of Derry.
Michelle Moon of Somerset, Kim Albright of White, Karen Kashurba of Greensburg and Cindi Meyers of Jennerstown are all members of a female sporting clay shooting team based in Somerset County.
"This is our first trip here. We were at a restaurant in Somerset after shooting at a tournament last summer and one of the waitresses told us we might enjoy it. So all of us got online and preregistered. ... It sounded like a lot of fun," Moon said.
In addition to wearing capes, boots, customized witch hats and holding a few broom accessories, Meyers wore a customized skeleton bone bracelet that covered most of her hand.
"You know the money raised also goes to a good cause," Meyers said.
The money raised from registration fees benefits two area organizations, the Helping Hearts & Healing Tails Animal Rescue and the Beth Luther Homeless Pet Fund.
Pat Baker, who owns the Holiday Home Store on The Diamond, appreciates the additional business and new customers that the event brings to town each year.
"It's really become a wonderful, festive atmosphere over the years with everybody in witch costumes. And it's really nice so far this year because it hasn't rained," she quipped.
In the early afternoon, the witches planned to return to the joint parking lot for a large group photo via drone, plus watch and participate in multiple dance demonstrations before returning to town for additional fun, Arnone said.
Baker, whose store offers decorations and gifts for all holidays, said that in addition to the numerous witch costumes, she enjoys seeing the reaction of shoppers in Ligonier who were unaware that the Witches Bike Brigade would be going on.
"The look on people's faces when they see all of these witches coming in the store and walking around town is really priceless," Baker said.
Baker offered a 10 percent discount for witches who had proof of preregistration and also held packages for customers to pick up later the the day.
More information on the event is available on the Ligonier Witches Bike Brigade Facebook page.
Paul Peirce is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at 724-850-2860, ppeirce@triblive.com or via Twitter .
