We went to the Maple festival for the first time today, but were not impressed. The festival itself is spread into different sections around town which is very choppy and doesn't flow well. We didn't want to pay 6 bucks for parking so we ended up going to the top of a hill by the trailhead. There were many people confused as to where the parking was.
We were quite surprised to see them forcing horses to carry people back to the top of the hill by buggy. The horses even stopped at one point on the hill because the buggy was too heavy for them. Talk about scary when there is a buggy in front of your car full of people on a hill.
After walking down to the festival, you can visit the pancake breakfast, carnival style food booths, or head to the festival park area. It is $5.00 per person and children are free. To be honest, the festival park area was so small that it's not worth the money in our opinion. It was muddy, small, and you everything inside cost quite a bit to eat. I suppose it's alright because its goes towards the Lion's club, but for a big family going together it's probably not worth your time.
There are vendors around the area, a small stage where you can hear folk music, sugar shack for your maple products, small tree tapping demo, house tour, and that's about it. If you do go, wear water resistant shoes because there is mud everywhere.
If you want to go and walk around then perhaps skip the paid festival park portion and just stay in the town or go enjoy the pancake breakfast. Personally, I just don't think this is worthy of the title 'Pennsylvania Maple Festival', because its honestly more like a small scale benefit.