Grab a fresh-squeezed lemonade and some halupki and settle under a tree to watch The Old Time Fiddlers' Contest playoffs while the youngsters make art in the children's area, the teens listen to Gashouse Annie and grandmother checks out the more than 200 craft booths.

The 32nd annual family-friendly Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival opens Saturday at Twin Lakes Park, east of Greensburg, and runs through the long holiday weekend.

Artisans from across the country will be selling, among other things, pottery, jewelry, woven carpets, soaps, clothing, drawings, prints, yard sculpture, birdhouses, outdoor furniture and Ukrainian eggs.

The 40-some food booths still reflect the region's heritage, with hot Italian sausage, gelato, Polish pierogies and fresh-from-the-bush blackberry pie like grandmother used to make. But you'll also find frozen dots ice cream and yogurt, cream of crab soup, fried dough and corn dogs.

And, festival executive director Donnie Gutherie says, there are "wonderful performing arts this year. We have the Glenn Miller Orchestra, for the first time." More than 50 performers will appear on four stages.

Gutherie takes care to acknowledge the hundreds of volunteers who supplement his bare-bones staff throughout the year to make the festival happen, and to keep it free.

Something else that draws a crowd, and national attention, is the Westmoreland Art Nationals Juried Fine Art and Photography Exhibition.

"This [2006] Art Nationals is my favorite show so far," Gutherie says, "the best I've seen out here."

The show attracted approximately 600 submissions from across the country as well as locally, which were honed to about 125 artworks shown first at Westmoreland County Community College, and about 10 less for the Festival. Jurors were Ben Schachter, St. Vincent College art faculty, and David Ludwig, Festival Art Exhibit Coordinator, who also teaches at St. Vincent College and at WCCC. Ludwig filled in for another juror who had to withdraw suddenly for personal reasons.

When the format of the fine arts exhibition was changed a few years ago, local artists feared they'd be driven out of the competition. Ludwig estimates at least 25 percent of the artists that were selected this year are regional.

"I think our regional people are holding up very well in regard to the quality of work and ideas in comparison to the rest of the country," he said.

And the awards bear that out, with top honors going to John Pascarella of Pittsburgh for an evocative photograph, "Untitled (dining room with parts for Chevrolet)," and Greensburg resident Aubrie Sell's oil portrait "John as Saint," both of them laudable.

Portraits are a favorite subject. Exceptionally sensitive and moving depictions of elders include Dawn Marr's oil "Emil's Accordion" and graphite "My Jenny Lind" (in which the hands tell the story), Gina Washington's black and white photograph "Grandpa," and Myron Brenton's color photograph of a "Tobacco Worker" in worn hat clutching a cigar between his teeth.

Photography continues to be strong in this exhibition, including the fascinating "Fly Triptych: Passion, Production, Population" by Angela Devenney; Barbara Thomas' layered portrait of a person and an age via objects, "Vanity"; Lourdes Delgado's disturbing "Francis," laid to rest in a cardboard coffin, his closed eyes covered with quarters showing the American eagle, the crumpled newspapers around him revealing one headline that reports Rumsfeld apologizing for unspecified abuses; Stacey Brown's elegant, spare "Solitude 1"; and Dave Hammaker's patiently made "Fall Currents," the time-exposed passages of golden leaves lighting a stream surface like streaks of sunlight before puddling in the foreground.

Of Steve Ritchie's black and white photograph of a "Chicken Coop" in a field, Ludwig says, "Personally I've always been in love with these little [rural] buildings that were made from what was available," adding that were he a photographer he might travel back roads to shoot those that haven't been replaced by pre-fabs.

Other media also have standouts, including the functional ceramics of Stephen Heywood that are fashioned after industrial buildings, and "Absalom," a clay bust with coiled wire hair by Pamela Brooks. Rich Rogowski's "Rhino Mask" panted on a skateboard, and Gabriel Felice's "Up is the New Down," of acrylic and spray paint on wood, add youthful aesthetics and zip. Robert Norton's inventive "Flu Shot Line Shadows" is printmaking at its best.

Finally of note, though I hardly need to point them out, are John Mayer's quirky 6-foot tall, cement "Jack's Rabbit" with menacing bunny head and torso topping a green dinosaur foot, and Mollari Sederberg's "MoodUSA," a beautifully crafted 75-pound blue-eyed bovine head with poisonous snakes rising from it made of welded steel finished with automobile lacquer and paints. It brings to mind such references as Sacred Cow, Medusa and perhaps even the Native American symbolism of the artist's Northwest U.S. location.

"It must have cost him 300 bucks each way to ship it," Ludwig says of "MoodUSA," with both exasperation and admiration. "This is a serious artist. I find that reassuring."

It's a lot of money to put out, he acknowledges. "But that's what it takes to get your work out there in front of the public."

And that's, ultimately, what exhibitions like this are all about.

WESTMORELAND ARTS & HERITAGE FESTIVAL

Where: Twin Lakes Park, Greensburg.

When: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday through Monday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Admission: free.

Transportation and parking: Shuttle buses and wheelchair accessible vans will run from the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, with the last bus to the Festival leaving at 7 p.m. The fare is $2 round trip with children 10 and under riding free. Take the Mt. Pleasant Road exit from Route 30 and follow signs to the campus. Parking in the park is reserved for vendors and officials. There is limited parking in private lots nearby.

Information: 724-834-7474 or visit www.artsandheritage.com.

WESTMORELAND MUSIC LINEUP

SATURDAY:

Island Stage -- 11:30 a.m.- 1 p.m. Deanna Dawn Denning (country), 2-3:30 p.m. Big Fat Jazz, 4-5:30 p.m. 2nd Avenue Project (jazz/vocals), 6:30-8 p.m. Neon Swing X-Perience ("swing music with flava").

Cabaret Stage -- Noon-1:30 p.m. Dave Minda's Fatback Blues Band, 2-3:30 p.m. Denise Baldwin (acoustic from the 60's to now), 4-5:30 p.m. The Joe 'Grkmania' Grkman Band (polka, including accordion).

Laurel Stage -- Noon-1:30 p.m. 3 Bricks Shy (vocal harmonies), 2-3:30 p.m. Random Brothers (acoustic guitar), 4-7 p.m. The Old Time Fiddler's Contest.

SUNDAY:

Island Stage -- 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Gashouse Annie (rock and roll), 3:30-5 p.m. Blue Number Nine (New Jersey "soul-filled funk"), 6:30-8 p.m. Walt Harper (jazz).

Cabaret Stage -- 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Denise Baldwin, 1-2:30 Random Brothers, 3:30-5 p.m. 3 Bricks Shy, 5:30-7 p.m. Roots A'Risin' ("hippy jam band").

Laurel Stage -- 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Hot Matzohs (Klezmer), 1-2:30 p.m. The Allegheny Drifters (bluegrass), 2:45-3:45 p.m. Laurel Highlanders (bagpipes), 4-5:30 p.m. Jimmy Adler (blues guitar).

MONDAY:

Island Stage -- 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Jimmy Adler, 2-3:30 p.m. George Lucas (country), 4-5:30 p.m. The Flow Band (reggae), 6:30-8 p.m. Glenn Miller Orchestra (Big Band).

Cabaret Stage -- 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Roots A'Risin, 1-2:30 p.m. Homegrown String Band ("old-timey music"), 3-4:30 p.m. Random Brotehrs, 5-6:30 Bill and Maggie Anderson (gospel, bluegrass, Americana).

Laurel Stage -- 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. bill and Maggie Anderson, 1-2 p.m. Apple Hill Playhouse's Johnny Appleseed Children's Theatre performing stories from American folklore, 2-3 p.m. Temujin Ekunfeo (storyteller), 4-5:30 p.m. Kicked.

TUESDAY:

Island Stage -- 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Stage Right Sensations ("lil' cuties doing dances and singing songs"), 12:30-2 p.m. The Strangers (jazz), 2:30-4 p.m. Gordon Stone (bluegrass with mandolin), 4:30-6 p.m. Johnny Angel and the Halos .

Cabaret Stage -- 1-2:30 p.m. Joe Grkman Band, 3-4 p.m. Apple Hill Playhouse performs samplings from "Jekyll and Hyde," 4:30-6 p.m. Bill and Maggie Anderson.

Laurel Stage -- 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Bill and Maggie Anderson, 1-2:30 p.m. 3 Bricks Shy, 2:30-4 p.m. Joe Maloy (accordion).

Other entertainment includes a strolling bagpiper and New Orleans style band, a coin-gathering monkey and live birds of prey, and encampments by the Society for Creative Anachronism and by the 11th Pennsylvania Regiment of Westmoreland County (Civil War).