Each year, on the first Sunday of December, Narberth invites the community to come and enjoy a festive holiday afternoon at the Dickens festival. This event is free for all and attracts hundreds of families and friends to this little borough. This Charles Dickens-themed event transforms Narberth into 1840’s London, where Ebenezer Scrooge, Timmy Tim, and the other characters from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol walk the streets. Small local businesses in Narberth transform their storefronts with holiday decorations and set up booths on the sidewalks. Many of the streets are blocked off so it is easier for families to explore this festive wonderland, eliminating the 21st century cars from these “1840’s streets.” However, with a 95 percent chance of rain forecasted to continue through the afternoon and into the night, the organizers of the festival had to make a pivot.
On Saturday December 2, one day before the festival was supposed to occur, the community received an email that the annual Dickens Festival was canceled. This came as a great shock and disappointment for many members of the community. Performers often spend weeks before the festival preparing their performances and picking out their costumes. Also, for local and small business owners, this festival often earns them a lot of profit and brings new clientele. Instead of the festival, Narberth presented A Christmas Carol Muppet show at the Narberth movie theater. This was free for all who wished to attend.
The swiftness of the festival’s cancellation was a jolt for community members. Newer to the area, one business owner commented that last year’s festival was a “great opportunity for [them] to meet new people in the neighborhood and was overall a joyful event.”
One Dickens Festival tradition that prevailed despite the rain was the presentation of the Nutcracker by the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet (PAB). Each year, PAB presents an abridged version of the classic Nutcracker story. Families are invited to sit in the studio and listen to a narration of the story and watch the dancers perform. The dancers spend many weeks and late nights practicing and perfecting their performance leading up to the festival. When news of the canceled festival came out, the dancers were about to begin their last rehearsal before the performance. However, Melinda Pendleton, the owner and teacher of PAB, didn’t want the dancers to miss out on this performance opportunity; the show must go on. In consequence,
PAB invited families up the hill and into the studio for a 1:00 pm showing of the ballet after the Muppet show.
Adding to the disappointment that came with the canceled festival, this was the last opportunity for many of the dancers to perform. Lauren Meyer, senior dancer at PAB, shared that she has been “coming to the Dickens Festival since before she was old enough to perform in it.” She made many memories over the years, “participating in the scavenger hunt” and “watching the Nutcracker,” which was always “really inspiring.” Maddy Hirsh, who has grown up dancing with PAB, enjoys “seeing the kids’ reaction to the show and [is] hopeful that the tradition will continue in the following years.” Although the audience was more intimate than most years, every member left the studio with a bigger smile than they had entered with.
Hopefully the Dickens Festival will return next year without any interruptions from the weather. Newer generations will be able to partake in this magical experience that transforms their neighborhood into a festive storybook setting. The community was grateful that PAB could still bring the holidays to life for their kids. A parent and audience member at the Nutcracker commented, “Dickens may not have weathered the storm, but the ballet went on.”
