Since 2010 the festival has been held in late summer (with the notable exception of 2021, when it was the first weekend in October due to the pandemic). The festival has now found a permanent home on the last weekend of July!

In 2025 and 2026 we held a free pre-festival show the evening before the festival began. We will continue that tradition as part of the festival — dates for the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival 2027 are Thursday, July 22 through Saturday, July 24. The Thursday show will be ticketed but free (digital buyers, please just add the free Thursday ticket to your order).

In 2026 we offered “blind faith” passes before the lineup was announced. We will do the same for the 2027 festival this fall, and you can expect a lineup announcement before the end of the 2026 calendar year (and friends, there is reason for excitement)! The early-bird sales period will commence as soon as the lineup is announced.

During the blind faith and early-bird sales periods, Friday-Saturday passes will be available (Thursday tickets are free and can be added onto your order). Single-day tickets will go on sale for Friday and Saturday when the early-bird sales period concludes.

Note that you can choose the “Afterpay” option when you buy your passes, which enables you to spread out your payment in four equal, interest-free installments.

When you buy passes online through our ticketing vendor, Flicket, you will receive an email receipt with an invitation to “name” your tickets. Be advised that this email might land in your “transactions” or “promotions” folder rather than your main in-box — please look through all your folders, including junk!

When you buy tickets online many months in advance, it’s easy to lose track of them. No worries, we got you — the week of the festival, we’ll send an email to all our digital buyers with festival news and updates that includes a link to your tickets. Worst case scenario: we’ll just look you up at the box office when you come to the festival!

If you need to contact us for help, scroll down to the end of this page for a contact button and we’ll help.

Your tickets. If you purchase a VIP Pass, 2-day pass, or single-day ticket to the festival online, be prepared to show your digital tickets (or printouts that show QR code) at the box office on mobile for fastest service. But don’t worry, if you misplace digital tickets, we’ll be able to look you up at the gate. If you have hard (paper) tickets, you will need one ticket for each day of festival. Please do not lose hard tickets, as we can’t replace these.

Your ID. You will need your ID if you intend to purchase alcoholic beverages. Please understand that you will need your ID to get an over-21 wristband at the festival or any other event at Peoples Natural Gas Park, regardless of your age and appearance.

Push strollers. We welcome small festival-goers! We encourage the use of strollers rather than wagons, as the site is small and full of people — but if a wagon is what works best for your family, bring it on.

Wheelchairs, medical scooters, walkers, and other mobility aids. The festival is flat, compact, and relatively easy to navigate. We offer accessible portajohns, and the VIP Lounge’s restrooms include accessible stalls. Welcome!

Chairs. The festival is general admission and has folding chairs available, but we can’t guarantee a seat for everyone. If you have reasonably sized folding camping chairs or stools you’d like to bring, you’re welcome to do so. That said, space is at a premium on our site, so please DO NOT  bring chairs that require an unusually large footprint or have potential to obstruct the view for others, including but not limited to inflatable chairs/loungers; and chairs with a canopy, side table, etc. You are encouraged to bring a blanket for use on the park lawn.

Dogs. Dogs and other pets are not allowed at the music festival or any other event at Peoples Natural Gas Park, regardless of the animal’s size or behavior. Leave Fido or any other pet at home for the health and safety of all our patrons. (Of course, service dogs in harness are welcome).

Coolers and outside food/beverages. Outside food and beverages (alcoholic or otherwise) are not allowed on festival grounds. You may bring an empty water bottle, and a refilling station will be available.

A/V recording equipment. Many of our artist contracts explicitly prohibit live audio or audiovisual recordings of any portion of their performances.

Weapons. No one (other than on-duty law enforcement officials in uniform) may bring weapons to festival grounds. Please know that there will be a bag check as you enter the festival (bags are allowed), and you will be wanded by our security team.

Tents, beach-style umbrellas, other shelters/canopies, collapsible playpens for young children, hammock stands. These items take up too much space on our small site, obstruct the view for others, and can be dangerous in wind. Rest assured that you’ll find plenty of places to get out of the sun if you need to.

Drones. Drones, whether launched from the grounds or from nearby, are not allowed without express consent of festival organizers. Enough said.

Large bags with wheels, skateboards, segways, non-medical scooters etc. The festival footprint is small and full of people. We do not allow these items — they represent a safety hazard, you won’t need them, and they’ll be in the way.

Please note that we cannot guarantee that specific festival performances won’t be delayed, interrupted or even cancelled in the event of heavy rain, especially at the open-air mainstage – and all festival tickets are non-refundable.

But no matter what, the festival will go on. The stage and audience areas of the pavilion stage is completely covered (and because the Polacek Pavilion and Community Foundation Oilhouse are permanent structures rather than tents, they are safe in case of lightning).

Concert events at the Peoples Natural Gas Park are under cover and will continue as scheduled if at all possible.

Please note that any charges for parking on lots near the festival grounds are not related to the festival and do not support us. More details at the link below.

Park

Absolutely. Children are welcome at the festival (and all other Heritage Johnstown-produced events at Peoples Natural Gas Park unless specifically stated otherwise). Children under the age of 12 who are accompanied by a parent/guardian get in free; older children and teens must have a ticket. You are welcome to bring a stroller, and if you really want to you can bring a wagon for kids — but please do NOT bring tent shelters or playpens.

The festival is unable to offer ticket refunds for any reason, including but not limited to inclement weather or the unforeseen cancellation of a particular artist’s performance. We’re all in this together!

No problem! Of course, you need a ticket for each day of the festival. But all ticketed patrons will receive a GA or VIP wristband upon entering the festival each day. If you need to leave and return the same day, your wristband will get you right back in without waiting in line at the box office (you will, of course, repeat the security check).

There are a range of area hotels to choose from! Visit the Hotels, motels & BnBs page for specifics.

We offer 2-day and 3-day camping in partnership with Coal Tubin’. Camping will go on sale right away during the blind faith sale.

Yes! We value our patrons with mobility issues and do our best to accommodate. Mobility devices such as wheelchairs, medical scooters, walkers, canes, etc. are welcome at the festival, and seating is available at each of the stages. Our venue, Peoples Natural Gas Park, is relatively easy to navigate, featuring sidewalks and paved surfaces, and the entire festival footprint is flat and compact. Accessible portable toilets are available on the grounds.

For wheelchair-using VIP Pass holders: in the Breezeline VIP Lounge (located in one part of the Community Foundation Oilhouse), there is a wheelchair lift that provides access to the upper level of the structure where the VIP bar is located. The Oilhouse restrooms include accessible stalls.

Yes! Our bars and the vendors take both cash and credit. An ATM is available onsite.

With the help of City and Commonwealth officials, Heritage Johnstown (formerly Johnstown Area Heritage Association) recruited the National Folk Festival to Johnstown in 1990 for a three-year run, raising the necessary funds to do so. The National Folk Festival brings “legendary masters and the next generation of dynamic young artists to celebrate the musical soul and cultural roots of America.”

After the National Folk Festival’s three years were over, our organization picked up the reins and began to produce the event on its own, renaming the event the Johnstown FolkFest; AmeriServ Financial became the title sponsor a year later, and the AmeriServ Johnstown FolkFest came into being. Our music programming continued the National Folk Festival’s mix of legends and cutting-edge newcomers representing all genres of American music. In 2009, to better convey that all types of music, not just folk, are presented, the name was changed to AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival – and the lineup got better than ever.

The festival brings artists to Johnstown who might never play here otherwise; the festival’s multiple-stage format gives patrons the opportunity to sample acts they might not have heard before. The festival’s attendees come from all over the country, and we have developed a national reputation for high-quality programming. Click here to find out more about the festival’s history.

In 2004 the festival moved to its current location adjacent to downtown Johnstown, and fundraising began for what is now the Peoples Natural Gas Park. The park was dedicated in a special concert event on June 16, 2012.

Like its predecessor, the AmeriServ Johnstown FolkFest, proceeds from the Flood City Music Festival benefit the Heritage Johnstown, a non-profit focused on history, culture, and community. Heritage Johnstown provides high-quality educational, cultural and recreational experiences in the area’s unique historic settings. We operate several museums: the Johnstown Flood Museum, which tells the story of the 1889 Johnstown flood; the Wagner-Ritter House & Garden, a house museum interpreting the domestic lives of 18th-century immigrants to the historic Cambria City neighborhood; the Frank & Sylvia Pasquerilla Heritage Discovery Center; which tells the story of immigrants to Cambria City in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the history of steel and iron in Johnstown; and the  Sidney & Rae Goldblatt Johnstown Children’s Museum, which is located on the third floor of the Heritage Discovery Center.

In addition to the music festival, Heritage Johnstown holds a wide variety of special events throughout the year, at Peoples Natural Gas Park and our museums. In this way, we support the local economy by bringing positive national attention and visitors to our area. The festival is a wonderful program that helps Heritage Johnstown provide a great experience for local residents, focus national attention here and bring people to visit. Along the way, everyone has a terrific time.

Many festivals with comparable lineups are much, much more expensive to attend. We are grateful to our generous sponsors, whose support enables us to keep the festival affordable.

The festival receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

AmeriServ Financial has served as the title sponsor for more than three decades, and we are so grateful!

In addition, a wide variety of business sponsors make the festival financially possible, and in-kind sponsors donate a huge array of products and services that that make the festival go. Thank you!

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