West Liberty’s Moonshade Festival will greet the April 8 total eclipse of the sun with more than just viewing glasses and T-shirts. The village has several events planned for the weekend, including a day to honor a favored resident and a fundraiser dance competition.
When Jill McKelvey ran her last meeting as West Liberty mayor in December 2023, she had one request: to continue heading up the eclipse weekend activities. Newly-elected mayor Brad Hudson and the village council agreed, giving McKelvey the green light to keep going.
Overall, residents and visitors can look forward to local businesses being open for extended hours. The village has also ordered glow-in-the-dark T-shirts and thermal color-changing cups.
Eclipse glasses are free to village residents. Just come by the village office during business hours to pick those up. Non-residents will be charged $2.
A festival pass can be purchased at mywestliberty.com for $10 a person in advance, $50 for a family of six, or $15 per single pass if you wait until that weekend. Each pass covers free admission to the events—including Piatt castles, trolley rides from and to designated parking areas, eclipse glasses and discounts in stores.
Parking will be available at churches and Theresa’s Gingerbread House. With these lots plus on-street parking, McKelvey claims they have space for close to 600 vehicles.
Eclipse Weekend Schedule
Starting things off, you can see fireworks at dusk on Friday, April 5, at Lions Park.
Saturday’s festivities will focus on celebrating Andy Detwiler Day. Known on YouTube as the “Harmless Farmer,” Detwiler lived in Champaign County, had a farm in West Liberty, and attended West Liberty-Salem schools. And though he died in 2022 at the age of 52, he still means something to the village.
“Andy fell into an auger at two years old and lost both of his arms,” McKelvey said. “But he learned to dress, feed himself and run farm equipment using his feet. In doing so, he’s helped thousands of people who were struggling.”
With that in mind, West Liberty will dedicate a statue in Detwiler’s honor on April 6 at the town hall gazebo at noon. The celebration will take place at the opera house from noon to 3:30 p.m. and will include videos of Detwiler’s inspirational life.
The village decided to synchronize Andy Detwiler Day with the eclipse festival to give Detwiler’s approximately 100,000 online fans a double reason to come see the area he talked about in his videos. They were able to coordinate the celebration with his family.
On Sunday, West Liberty hosts their Star-Crossed Love and the Bridge Dance Contest from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., also at the opera house. This event was designed with the goal of raising money for the Columbus Street bridge project.
According to McKelvey, they chose that name for the event because “the man who built the bridge in 1879 was told there were a lot of bridges he could build in Champaign, but he only built the one in West Liberty,” she said. “Then he stayed because he fell in love with a Champaign County girl named Isabella Lafferty.”
Logan County commissioners paid William Black $1,000 to build the Columbus Street bridge. He came here from Lancaster, Ohio … and never left.
Tickets for the dance contest are $10 a person, but the village is only selling 80 of them. You can purchase your tickets at the town office, but make sure you do so before they’re out. The community is invited to watch the competition and pick their favorite couple for $1 per vote.
Of course, these events all lead up to the main attraction: almost four minutes of darkness as the moon eclipses the sun. The solar event will begin at about 3:10 p.m.
Monday, April 8.
Residents should be prepared for the strain this will most likely put on the community. The influx of visitors will drain gas stations and, quite probably, empty the shelves at grocery stores, including Thoman’s IGA. We can also expect disruptions to cell service and Wi-Fi.
Eclipse chasers typically leave the area as soon as the event is over, leading to standstill traffic and hours of gridlock, so plan accordingly.
For more information about West Liberty’s Moonshade Festival, visit mywestliberty.com.