Citadel Palooza raises $55,000 for CHOP

Pottstown event featured country music star Hunter Hayes

EXTON » Citadel Palooza — the country music festival held in Pottstown Oct. 7 — raised nearly $55,000 for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

An estimated 2,000 people turned out for the day-long event at Memorial Park. Several artists including three local performers also took part in the festival, leading up to the night’s headline act — five-time Grammy nominee and country music singer Hunter Hayes.

“Citadel Palooza was a magical event that couldn’t have gone better,” Citadel President and CEO Jeff March said in a press release. “The community came together for an important cause and enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day with great music. I keep saying everyone has a CHOP story, which is why Citadel Palooza was so meaningful. Citadel is very proud of this accomplishment.”

In addition to the music, the event included a variety of food trucks and a Sly Fox Beer Garden. Sly Fox Brewing also donated a portion of its sales from the day to CHOP.

One-hundred percent of ticket sales will be presented to CHOP. Abigail Brooks, Citadel corporate communications manager, said the financial results of the event were in line with what the company anticipated.

“But the event itself exceeded our expectations. We didn’t know what to expect — this was the first time doing something of this magnitude,” Brooks said. “When we saw the crowd come together with their lawn chairs … it was rewarding. People were engaged and seemed happy. It was almost more of a celebration — the event felt very communal and celebratory.”

Planning for the first-time event took about a year, Brooks said, adding that the company was looking for a marquee event in Montgomery County, which she said is a fairly new market for the credit union.

“We have expanded during our 80 years in business and we wanted to let people know we are growing and want to continue to grow,” she added.

The production company Citadel worked with on the event — ESM Productions of Philadelphia — brought several Montgomery County location options to the company for consideration.

“We went to a few locations — but we fell in love with Memorial Park. It’s beautiful. When we saw it, we could just envision the event being held there,” she said. “It was so worth the drive. And that’s what we heard from attendees. They said it was a nice place to spend the day.”

Brooks said there were definitely some surprises as the event was planned, but added that Citadel relied on ESM, the production company that was behind the 2015 Papal visit to Philadelphia.

Unfortunately, one tragic event that could not be planned for was the mass shooting Oct. 1 in Las Vegas just days before Citadel Palooza was scheduled to take the stage in Pottstown.

“It was a horrible surprise and the timing was unfortunate. We sat down with ESM and mapped out increased security for the event,” Brooks said, adding that she did not think the Las Vegas event impacted attendance at Citadel Palooza. In fact, she added that ticket sales for the Pottstown festival spiked two days before the event.

Brooks said planning for Citadel Palooza 2018 is currently

PHOTO COURTESY OF CITADEL Country music singer Hunter Hayes performs during the Oct. 7 Citadel Palooza event held at Pottstown’s Memorial Park. The event raised nearly $55,000 for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CITADEL Citadel Palooza music festival attendees stake out their spaces at the Oct. 7 Pottstown event. Nearly $55,000 was raised at the event, which will be donated to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.