ALBURTIS

The Borough of Alburtis will welcome May with a host of festivities at Lock Ridge Park noon to 4 p.m. May 7 in a Spring Fling celebration organized by the Lock Ridge Theater Players.

The centerpiece of the day will feature a 2 p.m. pageant in classic English tradition with Renaissance music, Maypole dancing and the crowning of the Queen of the May, Autumn Weber, the daughter of Susan and Jason Weber, of Alburtis.

An honor roll senior who attends both Emmaus High School and Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, Autumn has been an annual participant in the pageant since the age of three. She plans to study communications at Kutztown University after high school graduation.

Dancers, archers, gypsies, singers, musicians, a jester and members of the court round out the May Day production. The pageant is under the direction of Francine Confer who teaches tap, ballet, jazz and baton at the Dance Connection held at the Alburtis Area Community Center.

Craft displays, food vendors and community organizations will be featured on the park grounds noon to 4 p.m.

The massive stone walls of Lock Ridge Furnace are an effective backdrop for the celebration. The main building of the 19th Century Thomas Iron Works has the air of a medieval fortress while the arched ruins of a carpentry shop are reminiscent of an ancient chapel. The park can be entered from either Franklin or Church streets in Alburtis, in the western end of Lehigh County. Alburtis is two miles west of Route 100 via Spring Creek Road.

The pageant was conceived in the 1980s by the late author and local historian Jean Stoneback.