UpCountry Magazine, July/August 2019

Adventures in the Berkshires and Southern Vermont

JULY/AUGUST 2019

Keeping the fair alive Agricultural fairs survive financial challenges; decline in volunteers, attendance

15 minutes with Josh Groban Where culinary alchemy and elegance come together Pottery is the new yoga

Plus: Blow your own glass masterpiece | Cakes that are anything but vanilla | Southern Vermont’s longest-running Fourth of July parade

TABLE OF CONTENTS

13 20 49 61

Where culinary alchemy and elegance come together

Keeping the fair alive

Heirloom Fire offers fire pit-based catering in natural settings

Aggie fairs survive financial challenges; decline in volunteers, attendance

15 Minutes with Josh Groban

Pottery is the new yoga

Singer-songwriter brings his operatic pop to Tangelwood’s Popular Artist Series

Wheelhouse Clay Center offers lessons in mindful creativity

In the Bard’s backyard Shakespeare is alive and well in UpCountry

7 From the editor 41

Create your own glass masterpiece A mind-blowing experience off Manchester’s beaten path

57

70 and still going strong Wardsboro hosts Southern Vermont’s longest-running Fourth of July parade

68

These cakes are anything but vanilla From Scrabble boards to sushi rolls, Fancy Pants Cakes makes it all

77

8 Contributors 26 10 fairs you don’t want to miss 46 10 things ‘not to miss’ this summer 72 Festivals and events UpCountryOnline.com | 5

FROM THE EDITOR

This issue really captures the essence of UpCountry’s outdoors.

UpCountry correspondent Stephanie Gravalese travels the Berkshires and Southern Vermont on culinary adventures and visited Heirloom Fire — a catering company, but not your typical one. Yes, there’s food. And as the name would imply, yes, there’s fire. But it’s a complete, catered outdoor culinary experience that is both magical, elegant, inventive and sustainable — and oh, yes, delicious.

Staying outside, let’s consider Shakespeare. UpCountry contributor Telly Halkias previews a new Shakespeare festival that’s coming to Manchester in August: Shakespeare in the Woods. If you’re a fan of the bard and a fan of the outdoors, then this is for you. Plus, the region is rich with all things Shakespeare, and Telly has rounded up all the offerings throughout the rest of Southern Vermont and the Berkshires.

When I think of a Berkshires summer, my mind immediately goes to the lawn at Tanglewood. Arts and entertainment writer Benjamin Cassidy interviewed Josh Groban, the youthful operatic pop vocalist who returns to perform at Tanglewood this summer.

Josh talked with Ben about his new album, and why he felt that it was crucial to infuse his latest recording effort with more hope and less melancholy.

And rounding it up, there are the quintessentially outdoor New England summer experiences: the agricultural fairs. UpCountry Editor Jennifer Huberdeau happens to be an aggie fair aficionado. So Jen writes about what goes into putting on these multi-day events that are filled with fun, food, competition and entertainment, but at their hearts celebrate all things farming.

We’ll see you out there ...

Kevin Moran, Executive Editor kmoran@berkshireeagle.com

Publisher Fredric D. Rutberg

frutberg@berkshireeagle.com

Vice President Jordan Brechenser

jbrechenser@berkshireeagle.com

Executive Editor Kevin Moran

kmoran@berkshireeagle.com

Editor Jennifer L. Huberdeau

jhuberdeau@berkshireeagle.com

Proofreaders Tim Jamiolkowski

tjamiolkowski@berkshireeagle.com

Jimmy Nesbitt

jnesbitt@berkshireeagle.com

Art Director Kimberly Kirchner

kkirchner@berkshireeagle.com

Regional Advertising Managers Berkshire County, Mass.: Kate Teutsch kteutsch@berkshireeagle.com

On the Cover: A horse and rider round the barrel during the barrel racing portion of

the Double M Rodeo at the 2018 Adams Agricultural Fair. Eagle File Photo. Story, page 20

Bennington County, Vt.: Susan Plaisance

splaisance@manchesterjournal.com

Windham County, Vt.: Jonathan Stafford jstafford@reformer.com

UpCountry Magazine is a publication of New England Newspapers Inc.

UpCountryOnline.com | 7

CONTRIBUTORS

Benjamin Cassidy [“15 minutes with Josh Groban,” page 49] is the arts and entertainment reporter for The Berkshire Eagle.

A graduate of Columbia Journalism School and the University of Michigan, Benjamin now lives in Dalton, Mass.

Jennifer Huberdeau [“Keeping the fair alive,” page 26] is editor of UpCountry magazine.

She also pens the column “Mysteries from the Morgue” for The Berkshire Eagle..

George Forbes [“A mind-blowing experience off Manchester’s beaten path,” page 57] is a cross country ski coach and photographer based out of Peru, Vt.

Cherise Madigan [“A mind-blowing experience off Manchester’s beaten path,” page 57] is a native Vermonter and frequent contributor to the Manchester Journal and Bennington Banner.

Stephanie Gravalese [“Where culinary alchemy and elegance come together,” page 13] is a freelance writer and photographer, writing mostly about food and travel. Her work has been featured in various publications including The Berkshire Eagle and Rural Intelligence. Follow her food adventures on Instagram at @stephanitaeats.

When not tracking down the best food spots, she can be found in Pittsfield, Mass.

Francesca Olsen [“These cakes are anything but vanilla,” page 77] is a writer and musician living in North Adams, Mass. She writes for The Eagle, Banner, Journal and Reformer, and other publications.

Telly Halkias [“In the Bard’s backyard,” page 41] is a national award-winning, independent journalist. He lives and writes from his homes in Southern Vermont and coastal Maine.

Anita Rafael [“Pottery is the new yoga,” page 61] lives and works in Wardsboro, Vt. Her feature articles on history, arts and culture, food, nature, people, and all things Vermont have appeared in various magazines and newspapers throughout Southern Vermont since 2007.

8 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

Visit us online at UpCountryOnline.com

HEIRLOOM FIRE

Where culinary alchemy and elegance come together UpCountryOnline.com | 13

By Stephanie Gravalese RICHMOND, Mass.

“Imagine yourself in the middle of a sprawling field, sun glowing on your face, smoke drifting into the sky as the embers crack and hiss. Imagine being a part of a tightly knit group who are working hard to bring to life the most important day of someone’s life.”

— Heirloom Fire website.

The world of Heirloom Fire is one where culinary alchemy is coupled with an elegance that can only exist in nature.

Owner James Gop describes Heirloom Fire, headquartered on Route 41 in the rural town of Richmond, as “a sustainably-minded, fire-based catering and events company.”

But for Gop, the company he founded in 2015 is about more than creating a unique dining experience. He’s also looking to inspire clients and guests to think differently about foodways, food waste and sustainability outside the traditional idea of farm-to-table cuisine.

To do that, a majority of the elements of an Heirloom Fire event are either farmed, foraged or forged. Gop and his team forage in the woods weekly to build out the kitchen pantry, swapping in invasive species.

“We allocate three or four hours just to go out to get specific items in mind,” Gop said. “We have a goal of trying to identify three new species every time we’d go up so that we can then track it from the beginning.”

What is collected by hand is infused, dried or preserved as part of Heirloom Fire’s pantry.

Reducing food waste includes using preserving, pick-

PREVIOUS PAGE: James Gop, owner of Heirloom Fire.

Photo by Tory Williams RIGHT: Gop tends to a roast.

Photo by Jocelyn Vassos

14 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

ling and preparing in unconventional ways. For example: butternut squash seeds are soaked, blanched and compressed into seed curd as a dairy-free cheese. The peels of that squash are dehydrated into a powdered seasoning for risotto.

As a fan of magic tricks and sleight of hand, Gop looks for the opportunity to continually surprise his guests.

“This one time we made chicken pad thai but we encased it inside of a gelatin-based puree. So, like, it basically looks like an apple,” Gop said. “Then you cut into the side of it and is a pad thai!”

Special effects

Gop’s creative drive did not start in the kitchen. His first oven wasn’t even used for cooking food, but for latex. As a teenager, Gop was interested in special effects makeup and mask-making. At 18, he ventured out to California to see if he could make it as a special effects artist. Unsuccessful, he returned to the Berkshires and took some time to figure out his next steps. He then joined the team at Guido’s Fresh Market, where he learned how seasonality impacts the taste of food.

His interests eventually turned to cooking, and he went to study at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. Working during the week at Guido’s, he would take the train down to New York City Friday night and awaken for school on Saturday at 5:30 am.

After full weekend classes, he would head back to the Berkshires and do it all over again.

After culinary school, Gop worked at several Berkshire institutions, including Wheatleigh and The Old Inn on the Green. It wasn’t until he started

The Heirloom Fire team prepares a course for service. Photo provided

by James Gop.

UpCountryOnline.com | 15

A member of Gop’s team prepares a meal. Photo by Jocelyn Vassos

working for Jeremy Stanton at Fire Roasted Catering that he began to find his passion for cooking food on an open flame.

For three years, Gop managed the outdoor catering operation and fell in love with creating magical outdoor food experiences. Gop left Fire Roasted Catering to focus on his next move, eventually offering himself as an outdoor catering option, later founding Heirloom Fire.

Even the wood is locally sourced Building up to an event, Gop is busy lining up food vendors.

“We try to source some local foods as closely in the area that we can, so the food is reflective of the region,” he said.

Sources need to be identified and lined up well in advance, as most of the cooking happens on-site. Even the wood is locally sourced, though it’s for environmental reasons.

As deliveries come in, the team transfers everything over to bushel baskets and apple crates, so even the packaging matches the natural and elegant aesthetic the company creates.

Heirloom Fire 2089 State Road, Richmond, Mass. heirloomfire.com Contact: 413-344-5771 or events@heirloomfire.com

The day of an event, the team arrives at the location at about 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. Gop and his team travel to each location with all the equipment they need contained in a single box truck. They survey the property, centering the kitchen near the closest water source, and start unloading and prepping for the day.

Hours later, when guests enter, the scene has changed: smoke hangs in the air and Gop, as well as his team, are impeccably dressed in jodhpurs and scally caps, as if they’ve just come in from a fox hunt.

Aesthetic doesn’t start and end with uniforms. It’s an aesthetic that is carried out in everything they do, down to the smallest of details.

As the team is setting up the kitchen, all materials are transferred from deli containers to Mason jars and plastic flats to baskets. Guests will not find

16 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

a plastic squeeze bottle on-site, and this is by design.

Surprise and delight

Gop wants every element of his events to surprise and delight guests as well as engage them in conversation. “ W hen people walk through an area that we’re in, I want them to feel like there’s immediately a story everywhere,” he said. “Almost every piece of equipment has a story, and there’s an opportunity for conversation.”

Whether that’s discussing the nonpredatory fish that’s cooking or how a dish was made, Gop’s goal is for guests to walk away from an event inspired to learn more. He wants them to know that working with him and his team that, any of his clients, they are making a difference by reducing the waste, cutting back on invasive species and overall raising awareness.

“Hopefully, we can influence something, make better choices, or influence them to do a little bit more research on their end,” he said.

Those looking to experience the magic of Heirloom Fire, but are not in the market for a wedding or private event, can attend a dinner put on by Field Ventures, a collaboration between Gop and Magdalena Mieczkowska of Magdalena Events.

Mieczkowska, an early member of the Heirloom Fire and Fire Roasted Catering, has worked over 100 events with Gop and is a regular collaborator. Putting on events quarterly, Field Ventures allows both creators to combine their talents and create a culinary event from the ground up.

Between events for both companies, Gop still has time to continue to innovate, dreaming up new tools to use or cooking methods to explore.

That’s exactly where he wants to be.

“This gives me so much passion and fuels me. I really love what I do,” Gop said. “So, I’ve come to accept the fact that my personal life fits in around this.”•

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Keeping th e fair alive

Aggie fairs s urvive finan cial challeng decline in vo es, lunteers and attendance

By Jennifer Huberdeau On a cool June evening, the grounds of the Adams Agricultural Fair in Adams, Mass., are empty and quiet. Its grasses wave in the breeze.

In just two months’ time, the smell of popcorn, fried dough and cotton candy will waft through the air. Bowe Field, the proper name of the

fairgrounds, will be bustling with activity: horse and oxen pulls, cattle and sheep judging, live music, a rodeo and a demolition derby.

As American as apple pie, the agricultural fair is the harbinger of the harvest season’s arrival. The modern day fair is now synonymous with fall’s impending arrival, livestock competitions, contests to see

who can grow the largest vegetables and carnival rides.

But on this evening, the cattle and poultry barns at the Adams fairgrounds are empty.

The only activity is in the exhibit hall, where a small group of volunteers has gathered. The task at hand is an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet — a fundraiser

ABOVE: Joey Kristoff is bucked off his horse in the 2018 bronco-riding competition in the Double M Rodeo at the Adams Agricultural Fair. Berkshire Eagle File Photo

20 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

to help pay the fees needed to bring in the popular Double M Rodeo show as part of the fair’s entertainment offerings.

“We brought in the rodeo for the first time two years ago.

It was very successful, but it’s also very expensive,” said Elizabeth Randall, a member of the

Adams Aggie Fair’s board of directors. “Everyone who attended it last year said they hoped we’d bring it back, and we are.”

But at a cost of $12,000, plus fees for support items needed to help run it, the rodeo seems to be a luxury that needs outside money and c om mu n i t y support

if it is to continue as an attraction at the fair, which draws 3,000 to 4,000 visitors each year.

The struggle to provide enter tainment that will bring in paying crowds, balanced with the fundamental goals of promoting agriculture and providing education about farm life to the public, is not unique to the Adams Agricultural Fair.

some of them, it’s reducing the number of days from five to four. Some close earlier. Everyone has to look at their own picture. It may be better for one fair to have country music, while rock bands are a better fit at another fair. It may be an option for some to sell beer on the fairgrounds.”

Some fairs, she said, have been lucky enough to establish reserve funds, while others have “rainy day” insurance.

A decade or so ago, attendance at the Bondville Fair, the oldest continuously held fair in Vermont, began to trend downward.

“We’ve adapted over time,” said Rocky Fratas, president of the Winhall Industrial Society, which puts on the Bondville Fair. “Recently, within the last 10 years or so, we went to an all-inclusive ticket price at the gate. It includes everything at the fair, except for food. That one price at the

gate includes all of the rides, which allows us to continue to provide fun for the whole family.”

The change, he said, was suggested by the provider of the fair’s amusement rides as a way to stymie the decline in attendance. And, the changes, Fratas said, seem to have worked, as attendance of late has been fairly steady.

Revenue-generating alternatives

Massachusetts Commissioner of Agricultural Resources John Lebeaux said many of the 42 agricultural fairs held in his state have found some way to raise money outside of fair season, whether it be traditional fundraisers or more creative solutions.

“Some own their own fairgrounds, some have arrangements with their local municipality. Depending on

their agreements, some of them are able to rent out the property during the rest of the year,” he said. “The ones that are able to, diversify — do things like rent out buildings for boat storage over the winter or rent out the property to other events.

“Being able to rent out the property can help out tremendously. It expensive to fix and maintain things. You constantly have to make upgrades to satisfy health and building codes. That’s a good thing — costly — but one can’t cook the burgers like they did in 1950.”

Renting out the fairgrounds has helped the Adams Agricultural Fair maintain the property and buildings on it, according to Chuck Felix, a member of the board of directors who oversees the rental process. The fair leases 14-acre Bowe Field from the town of Adams for $1.

It’s now in its second 25-year lease with the town. Be-

Fairs as a business “Fairs are more of a business than they were 40 years ago,” Cindi Jaques, secretary of the Vermont and New Hampshire Fair Association’s board of directors, said during a recent phone interview.

“It’s not inexpensive to put on a fair. There’s permits and different types of insurance that they need; even the farmers who come to these fairs are required to have some type of insurance.”

She said organizers have had to become creative to find ways to make the revenue coming in match the cost of putting on a fair.

“I don’t see fairs being on the decline, but I do feel many of them have made modifications to meet their needs,” Jaques said. “For

Piglets vie for the best space in their enclosure to be fed in the “petting zoo” barn at the 150th Cummington Fair in 2018. Berkshire Eagle File Photo

UpCountryOnline.com | 21

fore entering a lease agreement with the town in 1986, the fair was held at the Polanka Picnic Grounds in Adams, a property owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.

“Everything goes right back into the field,” he said. “It took off a few years ago when the Northern Berkshire Faerie Festival rented the fairgrounds.

Now, other events are held here. We have three happening [in June]. We also rent it out for weddings, birthday parties and receptions.”

And in an effort to help improve attendance at agricultural fairs in Massachusetts, Lebeaux points to an interactive agricultural fair map (massnrc.org/farmlocator/map. aspx?Type=Fairs ) on the state’s “MassGrown … and Fresher!” website.

And his department promotes all

42 of the state’s fairs during the Eastern States Exposition [The Big E], in Springfield, Mass., each September. The department, which oversees the Massachusetts State Building [which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year] on the Avenue of States, promotes the state’s agricultural resources — fairs, farms and farmers markets — during The Big E, which draws 1.5 million visitors annually.

Other challenges

Not all the challenges are purely financial. Weather can make or break an agricultural fair.

“Just like farming, these fairs are a weather-dependent operation, Lebeaux said.

Sunny skies bolster attendance, but rain keeps the crowds at bay.

“The saying, ‘It always rains at the [Adams] Aggie Fair,’ is so true, and last year was a disaster,” Randall said. “Last year was a washout so many times [over the course of the fair’s three days], due to torrential rains that we went negative and had to borrow to put on the fair. We paid the loan off in January.”

Whether crowds came through the gates, the fair still had to pay its entertainers, including Double M Rodeo, a cost of $12,000 and pay out premiums to exhibitors who placed in its numerous competitions, an amount, depending on the number of prizes awarded, that is often over $10,000.

“We are lucky to start each year with $10,000 in the bank,” she said. “Some years, it’s much less. This year, it’s almost zero [after] the loan.”

And those torrential downpours did more than empty the fair’s coffers. On the first night of the fair in 2018, rains soaked Bowe Field, a former pond where ice was once harvested, turning the fairgrounds into a field of mud.

It wouldn’t have been too bad, had the rains happened after the evening’s festivities had wrapped up. But the rains came during a touch-a-truck event, sinking the heavy construction and first response vehicles on display into the mud. The trucks had to be pulled from the mud, and the resulting ruts have yet to be repaired.

After a spring filled with rain, the fair’s organizers are still waiting for the field to dry out.

“We are praying it will dry up so they can be filled in,” Randall said. “It also has been too wet to mow.”

In 2011, the year that rains from Hurricane Irene washed out roads and left a path of destruction, the Bondville Fair was lucky enough to open its gates Friday and most of the day Saturday.

“We had to move everyone out on Saturday, when Irene really hit, but we still held the fair part of that weekend,” said Aimee Braxmeier, secretary of the Winhall Industrial Society.

Pictures posted to the Bondville Fair’s Facebook page Aug. 28, 2017, show the flooded fairgrounds after Irene hit.

“Thinking about Irene today and how we evacuated the grounds Saturday night and Sundays surprise is shown in these pics,” the post reads.

“Grounds underwater, washouts, and fence and ground damage. We survived!! And everyone evacuated safely.”

Volunteers needed

The biggest challenge facing agricultural fairs as they head into the future isn’t financial — it’s a need for volunteers.

A lack of volunteers was responsible for the closure of one Vermont fair in 2013. The Windsor County Agricultural Fair announced in March 2013 that the fair, which would have marked its 40th year that summer, had dissolved. Organizers cited a lack of volunteers as the main reason, along with low attendance figures.

Jaques said bringing in new volunteers and keeping them is a challenge for most fairs.

“You’re not just opening the gates for five days. Planning a

THIS SPREAD: Young participants at the 1986 Adams Agricultural Fair.

RIGHT: The midway of the Adams Agricultural Fair at its new home, Bowe Field in Adams, Mass., in 1986. Berkshire Eagle File Photos

22 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

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THIS PAGE: Scenes from the Bondville Fair, circa 1909.

Photos provided by the Windhall Industrial Society

24 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

fair is a year-round operation, and you need to have people who are willing to volunteer year-round. It’s a commitment,” she said.

Paid staff members are a luxury that few agricultural fairs have, so volunteers are key to a fair’s success.

“We really couldn’t go on without the dedication of our volunteers and their passion to keep it alive,” Braxmeier said of the Bondville Fair. “A lot of what’s kept it going for so long has been that we’ve always had a good group of volunteers. We have so many long-standing volunteers that have kept the tradition alive.”

Now in its 222nd year, the Bondsville Fair, she said, prides itself on being the oldest continuously held fair in Vermont — a fact attributed to volunteers who kept it running during World War I and World War II. While other fairs might have been founded before 1797, other fairs in the state skipped a year or two.

“Tunbridge [ World’s Fair] missed a year due to the Spanish flu. The others were not held during wartime.

But our fair was. During the wars, our women stepped up and kept our traditions alive.

A lot of old-timers talk about that,” she said.

Braxmeier began volunteering a few years ago, when she learned that the Winhall Industrial Society needed help.

“I’m a farmer. I’m always advocating to keep the old traditions going,” she said.

But new volunteers, such as Braxmeie,r are few, a problem in the agricultural fair community where volunteers are older, many being in their 70s and older.

In Adams, the fair, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, began as a one-day event in 1975. A year later, dairy- and beef-cow judging was added along with a flea market, an art show, children’s arts performances, and displays

of farm tools and antique bottles. By 1978, the fair had expanded to three days of events, including a horse show.

Patricia Wojcik, president of the Adams Agricultural Fair, credits the fair’s longevity to its faithful group of volunteers — many of whom have been with the organization since its inception. Wojcik, herself, has volunteered for 42 out of the fair’s 45 years.

And while there are newer volunteers, many are the children and grandchildren of the original organizers — many of whom began participating as children.

But attracting new and younger faces to volunteer is something that has to happen if agricultural fairs are to survive.

“I don’t know how much longer many of us will be able to organize the fair,” Randall

said of the Adams Aggie Fair’s older volunteers. “We’ll still volunteer, but we need young people and families to come pick up the slack.”

Fairs, once a family tradition, have taken a hit in recent years, as families find their free time consumed by youth sports and activities “The number of people some of these fairs bring into their towns is important. Some of these fairs have more people on their fairgrounds than they do in the town,” Lebeaux said. “I know its a strong concern that the average age of the volunteers at these fairs is on the higher end. Society has changed. A number of years ago, the fair was the big deal in town. Now, people have a lot of other things to do.”

The question of how to get youth involved in the annu-

al fair is one that all fairs are trying to answer, Jaques said.

The answer, she said, in part, includes the age-old act of getting families involved.

But first, fairs have to get modern families through their gates.

A vital part of the community

Agricultural fairs serve as a one-on-one connection between farmers and the greater community, Jaques said.

“They allow for education, for farmers to talk to the public about what they do,” she said.

“It gives people a connection to where the food on their table comes from. We give them a one-on-one experience and can answer questions.”

For some children, Jaques said, an agricultural fair is the

first time many children see farm animals up close.

“There’s something special in the smile of an 8-year-old girl who just held a bunny for the first time,” she said.

And educating a society that has become disconnected from where its food comes from is a key focus of all agricultural fairs, no matter what brings people through their gates.

“No, chocolate milk doesn’t come from brown cows. Just because cows are in a barn at the end of the ice cream counter, it doesn’t mean those cows provided the milk your ice cream was made from. Food doesn’t come from the grocery store,” Jaques said. “What our agricultural community does is feed the world. What better audience could there be than the one at your agricultural fair?” •

Competitors in the Double M Rodeo at the Adams Agricultural Fair try to rope a young steer. Berkshire Eagle File Photo

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10 fairs you don’t In Western Massachusetts Adams Agricultural Fair 371 Old Columbia St. Adams Aug. 2-4 adams-agricultural-fair.org The Double M Rodeo promises to be a highlight of the 45th Adams Agricultural Fair, which also includes a demolition derby, livestock contests, horse and oxen pulls, a K-9 dog demonstration, a birds of prey show, live music and entertainment, concessions, amusement rides, an exhibit hall and concessions.

Cummington Fair 97 Fairgrounds Road, Cummington Aug. 22-25 cummingtonfair.com Held over four days, the Cummington Fair seems to have something for everyone.

Watch the Western Mass. Lumberjack championship, a demolition derby, 4x4 truck pulls or one of the many horse or oxen pulls. The fair also includes several livestock competitions, a grange hall, a midway, concessions, live music and entertainment.

Eastern States Exposition (The Big E) 1305 Memorial Ave., West Springfield Sept. 13-29 thebige.com "New England's Great State Fair,” founded in 1917, is one of the largest agricultural fairs in the country, drawing over 1.5 million visitors annually. While you are here, make sure to try one of the fair’s famous fried foods and its signature dessert, the Big E cream puff.

Enjoy rides on the midway or take in one of the many musical acts, including this year’s headliners: Loverboy, Foreigner and Skillet. You’ll also want to tour the six New England statehouses, take in a horse show or pig race, and view the 600-pound butter sculpture.

Fruits, vegetables, flowers and crafts are shown off with their ribbons at the 150th Cummington Fair in this photo from August 2018. Berkshire Eagle File Photo

Heath Fair

Sheffield Fair

9 Hosmer Road, Heath Aug. 16-18 heathfair.org

Sheffield Town Park, 21 Depot Square, Sheffield Sept. 7 sheffieldfair.com

You won’t find an ATM or Wi-Fi at this small-town fair, but what you will find is a large community celebration. This threeday fair includes a ham and bean supper, a blueberry pancake breakfast, a barbecue run by the town’s firefighters and zucchini races. The weekend also includes livestock competitions, horse and oxen pulls, an antique tractor pull, grange exhibits, concessions and live entertainment.

26 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

This one-day fair might be small, but it’s worth the trip. The Sheffield Fair features hayrides, a woodsman demonstration, interactive animal displays, a drum circle, horse barrel races, live music and entertainment, and free games and activities for kids.

want to miss...

In Vermont Bondville Fair Vermont Route 30, Bondville Aug. 23-25 facebook.com/Bondvillefair Known as the “biggest little fair” in Vermont, the Bondville Fair, marking its 222nd year, has the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating fair in Vermont. Enjoy three days featuring oxen and horse pulls, tractor and truck pulls, amusement rides, bands, concessions, and traditional farm animal and hall exhibit contests.

Deerfield Valley Farmers' Day Fair

good clean fun!” This four-day fair features a BMX stunt show, horse pulls, truck pulls, a demolition derby, a midway full of amusement rides, bands, concessions, and traditional farm animal and hall exhibit contests.

1 Baker Field, Wilmington Aug. 8-11 dvfair.com Celebrating its 102nd year, the Deerfield Valley Farmers’ Day Fair prides itself on being “a long-standing local tradition which inspires neighborly competition, education in agriculture, wholesome entertainment, exhibits of area residents, and most importantly

Guilford Fair 163 Fairground Road, Guilford Sept. 1-2 guilfordfairvermont.com Now in its 75th year, the Guilford Fair “honors and promotes Vermont’s agricultural traditions in a way that is both educational and entertaining.”

This rural country fair, held each year on Labor Day weekend, includes a horse pull, cattle show, horse show, smallanimal barn, carnival rides, tons of local exhibits and lots of food choices.

Tunbridge World’s Fair 1 Fairgrounds Lane, Tunbridge Sept. 12-15 tunbridgeworldsfair.com Close out the summer at the 148th Tunbridge World’s Fair, where you’ll find harness racing, pig races, horse and oxen pulls, livestock showmanship, a gymkhana, sheepdog trials, live entertainment, carnival rides and more.

Vermont State Fair 175 South Main St., Rutland Aug. 13-17 vermontstatefair.org

The crowd cheers as Rosaire’s Royal Racers racing pigs sprint around the racetrack at the Tunbridge World’s Fair in Tunbridge, Vt. Photo by The Associated Press

Racing pigs, a demolition derby, live music, livestock judging, horse and oxen pulls, midway rides, grange exhibits and contests are just a few of the things you’ll find at one of the oldest state agricultural fairs in the country.

The Vermont State Fair celebrates its 174th year this summer with fun and excitement for the entire family.

UpCountryOnline.com | 27

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If you’re looking for country casual with a refined touch, this is it! A gentle stone wall, lined by colorful trees in the fall and gardens emphasized by stone walkways greet you every time you come home. The ever important southern exposure with lovely local long range views will draw you out to the tranquil deck.

The gym may become the master bedroom, the family room or an in-law suite — or, work out and hit the hot tub under the moonlight. You will love the open-concept kitchen dining, (great for entertaining) the light filled living room to the view and the casual family room in the daylight lower level! Let us tell you about the amazing new heating system and all the other perks. Just off pavement for the practical minded, a must see for all.

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Wilmington, Vt. 4 Bed • 5 Bath • Lot: 6.9 acres • Price: $995,000 Rustic country elegance, just three miles from Mount Snow at the base of Haystack Mountain. This home features cedar siding with post and beam accents, lots of windows, large entry with built in cubbies/bench and stone floor. Great room has a wood burning fireplace and a state-of-the-art custom kitchen with stainless steel Viking appliances, soapstone countertops and kitchen island, wet bar, stone wood burning fireplace and wood floors throughout. First floor master suite features fireplace, custom walk-in closet and awesome bath with oversized tile shower. There is a large covered porch overlooking Haystack Mountain’s lower trails, a great spot for wood storage and a back covered porch with extra-large hot tub overlooking a stream. Second floor features two bedrooms, both with custom tiled showers and walk-in closets.

Walk out lower level boasts a beautiful family room with a large sitting/TV area, foosball, ping-pong and pool table. Bunk room has two sets of bunk beds and a separate queen, making it a great guest/family suite. Oversized one car garage includes ski/snowboard and snowmobile storage and direct snowmobile access. The entire house is beautiful and in perfect condition!

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This home also features a glassed-in hot tub, to enjoy the view but stay warm at the same time.

New standing seam roof was installed and siding re-stained in 2018. Furnace is new as of 2018 and provides radiant heat throughout.

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Pittsfield Shakespeare in the Park's production of "Twelfth Night." Photo provided by Enrico Spada

In the Bard’s backyard Shakespeare is alive and well in UpCountry

By Telly Halkias

If you’re in the mood for Shakespeare this summer, you won’t have to look too hard to find a venue producing the Bard of Avon’s tales.

Shakespeare in the Woods, Manchester, Vt. shakespeareinthewoodsvt.com

Katharine Maness has been acting as long as she can remember. She took the theatrical bug with her from Vermont to New York City for more than a dozen years before the pull of the Green Mountains and her native Pawlet, Vt., found her coming back home to realize a long-held theatrical dream whose time had finally arrived.

Maness, the founding ar-

tistic director of the region’s newest Shakespeare festival, Shakespeare in the Woods, now works morning and night in preparation for her company’s inaugural season, which kicks off later in the summer.

She laughed when recalling how Vermont-like a story her final impetus was for moving ahead with the project: “Leave it to a local farmer to spur me on,” Maness said

in a recent interview at her office, where theater books were strewn around her laptop computer. “I’ve had this idea for quite some time, and shared it with my farmer friend. The reply? ‘That sounds great. When’s it happening?’ ” Maness did not have a good answer at the time. So, she started thinking about it seriously, which led to fine-tuning a project proposal and taking UpCountryOnline.com | 41

the plunge.

The concept of the festival, Maness said, was to put on “classical plays through a modern lens that allows indepth conversations about current society.” This would include a multitude of social

and other issues that have become hot-button topics in everyday life.

“I’ve always gravitated towards material that feels like it has something to say, something to contribute to the collective dialogue, and I’ve always

loved Shakespeare,” she said.

“It’s the perfect vehicle for fostering timely dialogue, because not only are the plays constantly relevant, but everyone has had some sort of personal experience with the material at some point in their life.”

Pittsfield Shakespeare in the Park's production of "Twelfth Night." Photo provided by Enrico Spada

42 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

The inaugural season, which saw cast and crews beginning to arrive in Vermont in late June, is held outdoors.

The campaign’s three shows will consist of “Much Ado About Nothing,” Aug. 22 - 25, “Romeo and Juliet,” Aug. 29

- Sept.1, and “The Taming of the Shrew,” Sept. 5- 8, with all performances being held at 7 p.m., on the lawn at Northshire Civic Center - Riley Rink at Hunter Park in Manchester.

“We have a seating capacity of 100 audience members per

show,” Maness said. “All shows are modern interpretations, as we are defining ourselves as an unconventional, outdoor classical theater festival.’”

The community’s response, she said, has been “tremendous” and that she hoped audiences

will “leave in discussion, with themselves or others, feeling like they’ve had a full, enriching, humanistic experience.”

The plays were chosen as Maness shaped the overarching theme she wanted to tackle over the course of the season:

how society does and does not listen to woman-identifying voices. In that vein, Maness said that “Much Ado About Nothing” and “The Taming of the Shrew” “almost act as bookends in this regard, as you have opposite ends of how the

UpCountryOnline.com | 43

male characters interact with and, ultimately, listen to the woman characters.”

“I want audience members whose identities they don’t usually get to see onstage reflected back at them,” Maness said.

“Representation matters, exceedingly so in small towns, and I’m excited for people to discover familiarity right there in front of them when the shows start.”

Pittsfield Shakespeare in the Park, Pittsfield, Mass. pittsfieldshakespeare.org

Heading south into the Berkshires, you’ll find a recently-hewn jewel of Shakespeare that can be hit or miss, depending on the year. This year, it’s a go all the way as Pittsfield Shakespeare in the Park is back for its fifth season, having taken a strategic hiatus in 2018.

The brainchild of local theater producer and educator Enrico Spada, he said what makes this outdoor theater unique among regional Shakespeare stages is that it’s free of change to the audience, and as such focuses on staging one show per season, cast entirely from locals.

Past seasons have seen Pittsfield Shakespeare in the Park produce “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 2014, “Romeo and Juliet” in 2015, “The Tempest” in 2016 and “Twelfth Night” in 2017.

This year’s production, “Much Ado About Nothing,” running Aug. 15-25 and featuring eight to 10 actors in double roles, will be directed TOP: MaConnia Chesser and Zoe Laiz in Shakespeare & Company’s “Merry Wives of Windsor.”

BOTTOM: Gregory Boover and Ella Loudon in

Shakespeare & Company's "Twelfth Night." Photos

by Nile Scott Studios.

44 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE

by Maizy Broderick Scarpa at the First Street Common.

Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, Mass.

413-637-3353 shakespeare.org

Just look at this company’s name and you’ll know that when it comes to Shakespeare in this region, Shakespeare & Company leads the way with big shows, big names, big crowds and a big season — all stemming from a big vision.

Unlike its northern upstarts in Manchester and Pittsfield, that vision was born in 1978, when Tina Packer founded the venerable stage. Since then, it has grown into one of the nation’s most respected regional companies, as well as a training center for acting. Today, Allyn Burrows leads the company as artistic director.

At its core remains the unique connection to its name.

While its annual theater season is a full, diverse stage offering, a core number of Shakespeare works continue to anchor it..

The 2019 season, which runs through October, includes Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” July 2–Aug. 4, “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” Aug. 8– Sept. 1, “The Taming of the Shrew,” July 9–Aug. 17, and a special workshop production of “Coriolanus,” Aug. 21-25.

The company’s contemporary offerings include the Pulitzer Prize finalist “The Waverly Gallery,” the Tony Award-nominated play “The Children,” Pulitzer Prize-winning “Topdog/ Underdog” and “Time Stands Still” by Obie Award winner Donald Margulies.

While summing up another dynamic year at Shakespeare & Company, perhaps Burrows ended up speaking for all of the area’s Shakespeare champions “The strings of your heart are sure to be stretched in every direction with the wide array of plays on our stages this summer,” he said. •

10 things ‘not to miss’ this summer In Southern Vermont “Always … Patsy Cline”

“Slow Food”

Ocean’s Edge

Weston Playhouse Walker Farm, 705 Main St., Weston Aug. 1-24 802-824-5288, westonplayhouse.org

Dorset Theatre Festival 104 Cheney Road, Dorset Aug. 22-31 802-867-2223, orsettheatrefestival.org

Brattleboro Museum and Art Center 10 Vernon St., Brattleboro Through Sept. 23 802-257-0124, brattleboromuseum.org

When an unlikely encounter in a Texas honky-tonk lands Patsy Cline at her biggest fan’s kitchen table, the rising star finds a fast friend and a savvy business partner. Latenight conversations between Patsy and Louise, a Southern housewife, create a bond that lasts a lifetime.

Listen in and hum along as Patsy and Louise belt their way through hits such as “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “Crazy” and “Back in Baby’s Arms.”

Limited to 10 performances, “Slow Food” reunites two stars of the long-running, Emmy Award-winning NBC comedy “Frasier.” Peri Gilpin, who played Roz Doyle, and Dan Butler, who portrayed Bob “Bulldog” Briscoe on the show, will star as Irene and Peter, a couple who just want to have a nice meal out on their big anniversary. But their highly neurotic waiter, Stephen, will not bring them their food, and everything goes horribly, ridiculously wrong.

For many, the ocean is a spiritual and emotional touchstone; it is also a place of fun and frolic. Three artists — Graham Nickson, David Kapp and Isca Greenfield-Sanders — take markedly different approaches in representing the wonder of being at the ocean’s edge.

North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show Various sites, North Bennington Through Nov. 3 802-442-3328, nbossvt.org The North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show, now in its 22nd year, brings together 40 international and emerging artists in an outdoor sculpture exhibit sited around North Bennington.

Locations include 48-66 Main St. near the Vermont Arts Exchange, train station, post office, Welling Townhouse, Powers’ Market and 66 Main St. New to the show this year are sculptures designed and created by students of the Village School of North Bennington with support from Bennington College’s sculpture department.

Color Fields: 1960s Bennington Modernism Bennington Museum, 75 Main St., Bennington Through Dec. 30 802-447-1571, benningtonmuseum.org

Paul Feeley’s “Untitled (Green Eye),” 1962. Photo provided by the Bennington Museum

46 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

During the 1960s, Bennington College served as a rural epicenter for a group of artists who were pushing the possibilities of abstraction in pared-down, color-based works that have come to be known collectively as Color Field. This exhibition looks at this crucial moment when artists connected to Bennington led the way in American art.

Whether you’re here on vacation, own a second home or are a year-round resident, navigating a summer season chock-full with cultural events of every nature can be overwhelming. To make things easier, we’ve highlighted five summer shows in the Berkshires and five in Southern Vermont that shouldn’t be missed.

In the Berkshires “Now I Let You Go …”

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art 1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams On view through 2020 413-662-2111, massmoca.org Acclaimed singer-songwriter Annie Lennox juxtaposes her public persona with more intimate aspects of her most personal self in her installation piece, “Now I Let You Go...” The exhibition — part material diary, part art installation — explores the impermanence of humans and the permanence of the objects we leave behind.

Into the Woods Barrington Stage Company Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, 30 Union St., Pittsfield Through July 13 413-236-8888, barringtonstageco.org Barrington Stage presents “Into the Woods,” the Tony Award-winning collaboration between Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Lapine (book) that takes an inventive look at a bunch of fairy tale characters — a baker and his wife; Rapunzel; Little Red Riding Hood; Jack, the giant and the beanstalk; and Cinderella, among others — as they each journey into the woods in search of “happily ever after;” reckoning, in the end, with the after.

“Ida O’Keeffe: Escaping Georgia’s Shadow” Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute 225 South St., Williamstown July 4-Oct. 6 413-458-2303, clarkart.edu “Ida O’Keeffe: Escaping Georgia’s Shadow” brings together 35 paintings, prints and photographs exploring the artist’s mastery of color and composition, as well as her complex relationship with her well-known sister,

Annie Lennox stands in front of her art installation, “Now I Let You Go...” at Mass MoCA. Photo provided by Eric Korenman/Mass MoCA.

Georgia O’Keeffe, and the effect it had on her life and professional aspirations.

Also on view: “Renoir: The Body, The Senses,” “The Forty Part Motet,” and “Art’s Biggest Stage: Collecting the Venice Biennale, 2007–2019.”

Ghosts Williamstown Theatre Festival Main Stage, ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, 1000 Main St. Williamstown July 31-Aug. 18 413-458-3253, wtfestival.org In a new translation of Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts,” Uma Thurman plays Mrs. Alving, whose painter son, Oswald, returns home after years abroad. But a dark explosive secret from the past threatens to be exposed when Oswald takes an interest in the family maid and his mother is forced to intercede.

“Woodstock to the Moon: 1969 Illustrated” Norman Rockwell Museum 9 Glendale Road, Stockbridge Through Oct. 27 413-298-4100, nrm.org “Woodstock to the Moon: 1969 Illustrated” aims to show how Norman Rockwell and his contemporaries, as well as a new batch of up-and-coming illustrators, reflected the many changes in popular culture, as well as the shift in the realm of illustration, that took place in 1969. This exhibit is one of four celebrating the 50th anniversary of the museum’s founding. Also on view are “For the People: Memories of the Old Corner House,” “Norman Rockwell: Private Moments for the Masses,” and “Inspired: Norman Rockwell and Erik Erikson.”

UpCountryOnline.com | 47

Photo courtesy of Tanglewood

TANGLEWOOD’S POPULAR ARTIST SERIES

15 minutes with Josh Groban

By Benjamin Cassidy LENOX, Mass.

Few singers have a more distinctive voice than Josh Groban, and few venues are better suited to host his ballyhooed baritone than Tanglewood. The 38-yearold’s operatic pop is a natural fit at the site that hosts classical and popular music during the summer months.

“A multidimensional music-loving audience is built into a place like Tanglewood, which makes an artist like myself who kind of dances between a lot of different worlds vocally feel very welcome and feel like I can really let all my influences hang out, and it will be accepted, and it will be understood,” Groban told UpCountry during a late May phone interview.

Renowned composer and conductor John Williams first invited Groban to perform at Tanglewood in the early 2000s. Groban recalled being struck by the campus’ natural beauty, as well as all of the picnickers on the lawn.

Most recently, he appeared with the Boston Pops at the Koussevitzky Music Shed in 2014. Since that time, UpCountryOnline.com | 49

the multi-platinum artist has released an album of musical theater covers; picked up a Tony nomination for his Broadway role in “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812”; starred alongside Tony Danza in a Netflix show, “The Good Cop,” which was canceled after one season; and released “Bridges,” an album of original material that features collaborations with Sarah McLachlan (“Run”), Jennifer Nettles (“99 Years”) and Andrea Bocelli (“We Will Meet Once Again”).

The last of those feats, and the April release of a CD/ DVD package titled “Josh Groban Bridges Live: Madison Square Garden,” was set to bring Groban to Tanglewood’s Shed once again July 2. Before the concert at what he calls “one of my favorite places to

be of all time,” Groban answered some questions about “Bridges,” “The Good Cop” and what’s next for his career.

Q

A lot has happened for you since your last Tanglewood show. Most recently, we have the “Bridges” tour. There’s a lot of hope in these songs and also a fair amount of longing. Do you feel that those are both forces in your life these days, hope and longing?

A

I think that having both of those things are key ingredients to having inspiration about anything in your life.

For me, musically, artistically, you want to have those things.

We’re in a moment right now, between social media and politics and cable news and

all that, where there’s a lot of hope. There’s a lot of longing.

There’s a lot of fear. There’s a lot of division. And I wanted to make an album — I’ve made some melancholy albums in the past — I wanted to make an album that was more hopeful.

Sometimes you’ve got to sing the music you need to hear. Sometimes you have to sing the message you need to hear and hope that it will be universal enough that other people wanted to hear it as well. So, I wrote, and I wrote and I wrote, and a lot of the songs I was writing were optimistic. They just were.

They were about inspiring new generations and thinking about myself at a young age when I was confused and anxious and shy, and what would I want to hear if I were

somebody out there? So, that on top of the fact that I just got to work with some incredible producers and co-writers that were able to help those ideas come to fruition and do it with a modern approach so that I was able to sing in a way that feels very “me” but was able to do it with a surrounding that felt contemporary but not square-peg-in-a-round-hole.

It was just a hugely inspiring experience. I loved doing it, and every note that I sang on it, I was thinking to myself, “This is going to be really fun live.” So, to be able to have these songs now in my arsenal to bring out onstage is really a lot of fun.

Q

You collaborated with Andrea Bocelli on “We Will Meet Once Again.” Was that a full-circle moment for you, given how your career started?

A

It was 100 percent full circle. It was a duet 20 years in the making for me. I stood in for him. The story goes: I was a teenager and stood in for him [at a 1998 Grammy Awards rehearsal], and all these years later, to be able to be a peer of his and to be able to write a song that could fit our voices together, which is not always easy to do for a tenor and a baritone, to be able to do that, and to do it with a message that is, for me, very special.

I don’t want to know what he’s thinking of with the lyric.

Maybe he’s thinking of his son or his family or whatever else, but for me, it really represented the full-circle journey of that 17-year-old kid singing in his place and then being able to do a song with that message with him in a studio. It was very special. I loved the song, and I love his voice — always have. I’m so happy we were able to do that together.

Q Josh Groban’s albums “Bridges” (above) and “Bridges Live” (next page) are available now.

Photos provided by Tanglewood

50 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

During my research for this, I was surprised the album hadn’t been reviewed more. I was wondering if you feel like people

struggle to define your music, if you feel like you’re sort of a genre unto yourself?

A

[Laughs] Yeah, I think there’s a couple reasons for that. I did notice that as well.

On the one hand, my entire 20-year career, reviews for me have been almost entirely inconsequential. My fans don’t read them. They don’t care about them. Sometimes they’re great. Sometimes they’re s---.

And it really doesn’t make a damn bit of difference for any artist, by the way, but I also think that, to a certain degree, you’re right. I think that after 20 years of doing this, I have kind of written a playbook all my own a little bit, which can feel a little lonely when it comes to the press.

But at the same time, I think that certain reviewers might say, “Well, I don’t know how to begin here, so maybe I just won’t touch it.” They wouldn’t want to, I don’t know, dive into something that isn’t their wheelhouse or isn’t their history or whatever else, which, I respect that. I’d rather that.

I’d rather they just say, “This isn’t my bag, and I’m not going to write about it,” than set it up for something to just make them look cool, to make them look good.

But there’s another reason for that, and that is that I also put out my first-ever lead role in a Netflix show on the exact same day [Sept. 21, 2018] as the album came out. So, from a press perspective, if they’re going to talk about me on that day, the shiny new object was that I was starring in a new TV show, and that I’d never done before. So, I think that a lot of the attention went to reviewing that, went to talking about that, and the music, from a press side at least, was more of an afterthought.

From an actuality side, the show was more of the afterthought and the music has led to a yearlong tour. But from a press side of things, that was kind of the newer, fresher thing

to talk about, so I understand that as well.

Q

Let’s talk about “The Good Cop.” What did you learn from working on that show, and were you surprised that it got canceled?

A

I wasn’t surprised; I wouldn’t have been surprised one way or the other, because Netflix doesn’t tell you ever what’s going on with it or who’s watching it. They keep all their analytics to themselves, so if you’re working on a show, you just kind of have faith that they’re going to market it to whoever their algorithm says to market it to and you don’t know. You just don’t know. …

I loved, loved, loved working on this show. I loved the show.

I loved Andy Breckman, who gave me the opportunity to star in it. I’m eternally

grateful to him. I loved the cast: Monica Barbaro, Tony Danza, Bill Kottkamp, Isiah Whitlock Jr., just extraordinary human beings and actors.

Everybody involved with the show, of course, was deserving of another season and beyond.

I think it got lost in the crowd.

I think that it was at a time when streaming services were just gobbling up everything they could, and I think that it wasn’t edgy.

We were doing a very PG show that harkened back to some of the more feel-good, innocent, “Columbo”-esque kind of mystery show, along the lines of “Monk,” [which Breckman created], for instance. I think on a streaming service that I think people are growing accustomed to seeing things that they can’t see anywhere else on these services. We were a show that would’ve been a

great show on a network, I think. And I think it got a little bit lost, unfortunately, in the viewership because there is so much competition as you scroll through any of these services.

There are a million options.

It is what it is. I learned a lot. I would do it again in a heartbeat. And I loved doing it. And yes, of course I think it deserved a second season, but that wasn’t up to us.

Q

Before that, you had this very celebrated Broadway run. When can we expect to see you on the stage again? Anything in the works?

A

You know ... potentially, yeah. I miss it. I really miss it. I have loved theater since I was in high school. Recording was a fork in the road for me. Whenever I find myself UpCountryOnline.com | 51

If you go...

What: Popular Artist Series: Josh Groban at Tanglewood When: 7 p.m., July 2 Where: Koussevitzky Music Shed, Tanglewood, 297 West St., Lenox, Mass.

Tickets: 888-266-1200, $32-$699 Information: bso.org

with theater people working on a stage telling stories through theater, I feel so inspired. I love it so much. It takes a long time to develop.

I was very spoiled by the show I was in, “Great Comet of 1812,” and I want to do something that feels just as inspiring to me, and that can take a few years to develop and find a team. So, there’s a lot that I’m looking at, a couple things very specifically that I’m hoping to do, but it wouldn’t be for two or three years from now.

Q

Anything else that you have on the horizon that you wanted to get out there in the world that you’ve got coming up this next year or so?

A

At the moment, I’m just so happy that the fans have wanted me to continue the “Bridges” tour. You never know what the response is going to be, and between the last leg we did, and the television special and now to be able to do this combination of indoor-outdoor shows, I’m just going to spend my summer enjoying that. I’m recording again. I just got in the studio this last week and am starting to sing some new material.

I’ve got some very special things to announce that I can’t announce yet for the coming year, for next year. But at the moment, I think I’m just going to go out there and sing my face off and finish the rest of the summer with a bang. • 52 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

Photo courtesy of Tanglewood

SPONSORED CONTENT

A messy kind of magic Alex Kamaroff turns tape and paint into works of art at Glendale Brook Studio in Lenox, Mass.

Alex Kamaroff ’s painting technique is simple but maddeningly difficult. He creates magic using only artist’s tape, acrylic paint and a hair dryer. That’s it. Come and watch him paint in his gallery, Glendale Brook Studio at 27 Church St. in Lenox, Mass., which he does most days and always on Saturdays. He loves to explain what he’s doing and is happy to demonstrate.

What looks like a mess of different kinds of tape on a canvas interspersed with seemingly random flashes of paint becomes a vivid, exciting work of art when the tape is pulled away. This style is called “hard edge” because the tape creates precise and distinct edges. Visitors are fascinated by the process, and kids are allowed to try it. They learn right away that it’s a lot harder than it looks, but they love finding that out.

Now flash back to New York City in 1958. Alex was a little boy. He would take the train in from Long Island (back then, kids could do that alone) and meet his grandmother in Penn Station.

From there they would go to the Museum of Modern Art, at his request. Grandma Ethel, a feisty lady who ignored bus fare for children (Him? He has no money!) would sit patiently on a bench for hours while her rambunctious grandson ran around, soaking up the priceless works of art that were all around him.

He didn’t know they were priceless. He didn’t know that he was in a famous place. He only knew that he was mesmerized by what he saw, and that it felt like a second home.

Following a fruitful career as a novelist, an innate talent came out of its shell and began to take over. It happened when Alex spilled a can of paint and became fascinated with how it moved.

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Learn More: Glendale Brook Studio,

Lightning struck. He painted every day, all day, continuing to study the 20th century masters, and he practiced, practiced, practiced. Local businesses began to buy his paintings. After a few years of growing popular demand, he opened his own gallery.

The business had a sensational opening last year, followed by a whirlwind summer season. A significant number of paintings sold, and Alex continued to hone and develop his style. While he is deliberately influenced by the masters, he always adds his own signature twist. If you would like to own a Miro, say, but can’t afford to spend $17 million, try a Kamaroff. It pays homage to Miro and also allows you to have an original piece of art. Original art is very different from a poster. Not only does it have authenticity, but it has the electric immediacy of the artist who created it. You own the real thing. Today, Alex Kamaroff is one of the finest hard edge painters in the world. There aren’t that many of them, because many artists don’t get it, and few attempt it. But for him it was finding the shoe that fit.

Alex was especially gratified that paintings sold to people all over the world. You never know who is going to stop by in Lenox, which is a thriving arts community. His paintings are now in London, Brazil, Israel (where it hangs next to an original Mondrian), Alaska, Boston, and New York.

A successful first year brought more confidence and better art. Alex is eagerly looking forward to this year’s summer season, because now he knows it’s working. When you open an art gallery, you don’t quite know what to expect. As with any new business, you hope that people will walk in, you hope they will like what they see, and you hope they will buy paintings.

Buoyed by last year’s accomplishments, Alex was encouraged to move into fresh directions in his work. He is always doing something new and is always surprising himself. Visitors love the new directions; they understand that what they see on any given day is not what they might see on any other day.

In one short year, Glendale Brook Studio has become an integral part of the flourishing Lenox community. Alex looks forward to greeting you in the gallery. He’s the one in the paintstained sweat shirt. •

27 Church St., Lenox, Mass.

413-551-7475 | glendalebrookstudio.com

THIS SPREAD: Glendale Brook Studio owner Alex Kamaroff (top left) creates bright, energetic paintings in his Lenox, Mass., workplace, which is open to the public.

Photos by Casey Albert.

Glass-blowing students work to shape a vase with direction from Glass Artist Andrew Weil. Photos by George Forbes

CREATE YOUR OWN GLASS MASTERPIECE AT MANCHESTER HOT GLASS

A mind-blowing experience off Manchester’s beaten path

By Cherise Madigan MANCHESTER, Vt.

Stepping through the doors of Manchester Hot Glass, there’s no shortage of stimuli for the senses. Everything from the light gleaming off the vibrant glass artwork, the radiating heat as you move closer to the studio and, most prominently, the boisterous voice of glass artist Andrew Weil draws you into the action — even if you’ve only come to browse.

Over the years, the shop has become a fixture off Man-

chester’s beaten path. Just past the hustle and bustle of Depot Street you’ll find Weil leading artists and amateurs through an experience as unique as his designs, facilitating a hands-on glass-blowing experience that’s one of a kind.

“Working with glass is the great equalizer,” he explained.

“I don’t care how great of an artist you are — if you’ve never worked with glass, you’ve never worked with glass.”

Weil is something of an expert on the subject, having worked with glass since his

teenage years and eventually earning a bachelor’s in fine arts in the subject from Franklin Pierce College. He then entered the world of production art glass and spent time honing his craft in Sweden before opening the doors of Manchester Hot Glass in summer 2000.

“Right from the start I learned a great lesson in humility,” Weil writes on his website. “Glass is an amazing material — it can be hot and malleable and cold and delicate all at the same time. There is nothing like it. The surprises

it can produce are equally as unique. Needless to say, it is a very humbling experience to watch as your work hits the floor, or cracks in the process of being made.”

Working with private groups of all varieties, the artist and educator initially offered the classes out of necessity during the Great Recession.

With a degree in art education, and a passion for working with the material, it just made sense.

Today, Weil welcomes everyone from tourists to celebrity students into his studio.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A student blows the molten glass to form a vase as her husband keeps the object in motion.

Glass Artist Andrew Weil applies heat to the molten glass before preparing his students to shape the material.

Glass ornaments and light fixtures are also a specialty of Weil’s, with his work being incorporated in the design of both local restaurants and institutions nationwide.

At the end of the glass-blowing lesson, Weil applies a powerful torch to the base of his student’s vase to ensure the integrity and stability of the piece.

58 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

Try it yourself...

Manchester Hot Glass

Blown-glass object

79 Elm St., Manchester Center, Vt. 802-362-2227 Manchesterhotglass.com

$100 per person, per blown object.

Glass-blowing classes Offered Thursday through Sunday.

Reservations requested, group classes always welcome.

Paperweight-making $50 per person, per paperweight.

Pick out the glass colors; bend, pull, stretch and mash up molten glass, then shape it to make your own one-of-a-kind glass paperweight. Plan for a minimum of 15 minutes per person, per paperweight.

“It keeps me in the studio, which is, honestly, where I want to be,” he said. “Whether I’m making stuff or helping people make stuff, I really find it gratifying.”

As a teacher, Weil is unapologetically himself, admitting that he becomes “a

You pick the glass colors, handle the molten glass, then blow and shape it to make your own one-of-a-kind pint glass, bowl or vase. Plan for a minimum of 30 minutes per person, per blown object.

Glassblowing 101 $350 for two people and two instructors for two hours.

You will average about four to five glass pieces per person. Some pieces you might make include: paperweights, drinking glass and a bowl or vase. Reservations required.

you’re playing with molten lava,” Weil said, laughing. “Not everyone gets the chance to do that.”

But it’s not just the students who benefit. Though Weil began by producing a plethora of inexpensive items to pay the bills, the income from his

“Working with glass is the great equalizer. I don’t care how great of an artist you are — if you’ve never worked with glass, you’ve never worked with glass.”

— Andrew Weil, glass artist

little animated in the studio” to make sure that everyone is comfortable. There’s an inherent risk to any class that encourages beginners to mold molten materials, but Weil leads with hard-earned wisdom, humor and a hint of sarcasm to keep his students at ease.

“Joking around helps take your mind off of the fact that

classes allows him to focus on making higher-end artwork in his own time. Now, Weil is able to pursue his craft in a way that’s equally challenging and gratifying, producing higher-end pieces for sale and commission.

“My own work has continued to evolve, and I’m continually improving and working on different techniques,” he

said. “I think in a lot of ways, teaching has helped me grow as an artist.”

While instructing his students, Weil is required to work backward, relying on his left hand though his right is dominant. The color combinations chosen by students often prove inspiring as well, he says, as do the questions raised by beginners.

“I’ve helped a lot of people experiment and have been able to learn with them, which is really cool,” Weil said. “We had an artist come in once who wanted to pour glass over antique typewriters, and we ended up making this unique art installation, which was really fun.”

Though it’s unlikely you’ll walk away a great glass artist, you will take home the object that you create, as well as a new appreciation for the glass around you. After working with the material so closely, Weil says, you’ll never look at a wine glass the same way again.

“To be able to help other people bring their ideas to fruition is really cool,” he said.

“I really enjoy getting to know people and seeing them come out of their shells and make amazing things. It’s been a lot of fun.”• UpCountryOnline.com | 59

WHEELHOUSE CLAY CENTER OFFERS LESSONS IN MINDFUL CREATIVITY

Pottery is the new yoga

Wheelhouse Clay Center co-owners Shari Zabriskie and Teta Hilsdon. Photos provided by Jeff Woodward of Jeff Woodward Photography

UpCountryOnline.com | 61

By Anita Rafael BRATTLEBORO, VT.

Just two hours into my first pottery lesson, during my first class of beginner wheelwork with my teacher, Teta Hilsdon, co-owner of the new Wheelhouse Clay Center, I had made a bowl.

I threw it from a 2-pound lump of wet, slippery brown clay. By the third class, Teta [rhymes with Rita] had my five classmates and me making cylinders — that is, taller, narrower pieces that can be used as mugs, pitchers, petite vases, or pencil pots. In the fifth class, we were all making flat

plates. Voila! I had a basic place setting — salad or soup bowl, drinking vessel and plate.

Being my own reluctant critic, I thought, OK, so what if the first bowl I made was rather thick, straight-sided and fat-bottomed? It wasn’t lopsided or droopy, and it was deep enough and essentially round. My cylinders stood a good 6 inches tall [OK, those first few looked a little torqued out], and, as it turned out, flat dinner plates were not as easy to make as I thought they’d be.

But I made four dessert plates and a saucer!

By the end of the plate-throwing class, I had used

62 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

up my first 25-pound block of material and was well into my second. Lessons were three hours long, so I was throwing more than one pot during each session, and seven days a week at Wheelhouse, there are hours and hours of “bench time” at no extra charge to hang out and practice throwing more things; plus, I ended up with a few pounds of material in my woefully wrecked pots bucket — all of which accounts for working that much clay.

At the final session, the eighth week, I packed up a big cardboard box with my colorfully glazed mismatched bowls, little plates and saucers, spoon

rests, chopstick rests, vases and flower pots. [OK, some of the flower pots happened when I accidentally poked holes in the bottoms of things that were intended to be bowls.] Peering in at all the things I had made at the wheel was revelatory. Wait … am I now a potter?

Not quite, but I did find out that clay is my new yoga. It’s because, as with yoga, making pottery can move your mind, your senses and your muscles to altered states, sometimes unfamiliar, but not unwelcome.

One of my classmates at Wheelhouse, Linda Gifkins, of Wardsboro, Vt., who is a regular at Newfane Village Yoga,

From left to right: Shirley Chancey, Zufan Hagos, Anita Rafael, Monica MacNeille, teacher Teta Hilsdon and Linda Gifkin.

understood my reaction.

“I think that working on the pottery wheel feels both therapeutic and frustrating at the same time, like yoga,” she said. “I just had to learn to push my boundaries in trying a craft that was totally new to me.”

Not lacking artistic ability, Gifkins is a remarkably creative rug hooker whose primitive-inspired pieces are prized locally.

The new wheels in town Wheelhouse Clay Center, located in a vast ground-level studio, celebrated its soft opening this past March. Because

the studio is painted snow white all over, and with what seems like miles of natural pine shelving rising nearly to the ceiling, in addition to the shiny, eggshell-colored wooden floors, the space looks and feels like a SoHo loft.

Inside the 3,800-squarefoot space, there is more than enough elbow room for a passel of potters to be working at once, while in the background, Amazon’s Alexa obediently shuffles her way through some vintage Simon & Garfunkel in between a little classic rock, a bit of Dylan, and the occasional J.S. Bach prelude.

The claystations up front

with the garden view are where the co-owners of Wheelhouse craft side by side, pro-potters Hilsdon and Shari Zabriskie.

Hilsdon and Zabriskie teach pottery classes and extend an invitation to all potters to host their lessons in Wheelhouse’s classroom space, too.

Currently, Emily Wright, Sally Geldard-Hewes, Diane Elchin and others teach eight-week sessions, private lessons, frequent daylong workshops and monthly “three hours of fun with clay dates” called Clay Play.

Along the side wall, and down the studio’s front-toback central avenue, there are

long plank shelves, properly labeled and organized with tools, supplies, pots in progress and finished pieces. There are big plywood tables, simple wooden benches and pottery wheels designated for the 22 craftspeople — wheelworkers, hand builders, and sculptors — who rent makerspaces at Wheelhouse month to month.

In the brightly lit far corner, there are six wheels, more shelving, and more tables and benches where merry bands of talkative students gather with their teachers to work on their projects. Not all the lessons at Wheelhouse are for clay virgins like me. One of Diane Echlin’s UpCountryOnline.com | 63

classes is called “Thrown and Altered,” where participants with advanced skills explore texture, applied elements, reshaping, faceting, fluting and other techniques.

Opposite the students’ zone, there is a broad and spotless white counter where everyone glazes their pottery, and a giant three-bay stainless steel sink for washing up. In another corner, Wheelhouse fires three electric kilns, usually to “cone six” temps, which is the toasty 2,232 degrees that produces brilliantly vitrified pieces. Day after day, one kiln or the other is being filled with new work from various potters, or emptied of their bisqued or finished pottery. Just inside the studio’s big, bright yellow double front doors, there is a wide gallery of signed merchandise for sale, hundreds of pieces that are either pleasingly utilitarian or purely decorative. And in all cases, these are works of art.

Hilsdon is a yoga teacher, and Zabriskie practices, too.

During pottery lessons, they each naturally impart the link between the mat and the wheel. Like yoga, Zabriskie says, throwing always offers challenges and failures blended with the joy of incremental successes and rewards.

“But there is something about handling clay. I believe people find energy in the way it spins in their hands. That’s what hooks you into the practice,” she said. “Pottery is a practice.”

Now, here’s the inside baseball. Yoga is mystical, but during dozens of rookie-level classes, I often hathaed unenlightenedly with every pose and breath. Yet, after I graduated from Wheelhouse’s eight-session pottery 101 program, I was inexplicably self-assured and content just to be drinking chai from my sponge-glazed mug, eating cake off my celadon slip-decorated plate, and planting flowers in the pretty blue polka-dotted pots I made.

That’s an awful lot of nirvana, right there. • 64 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

All the details Wheelhouse Clay Center 48 Harmony Place, Brattleboro 802-490-2693 wheelhouseclaycenter.com

TOP: Student pieces wait to be fired at Wheelhouse Clay Center.

BOTTOM: Shirley Chancey and Zufan Hagos work the wheel.

Scenes from the 62nd Wardsboro Fourth of July Parade in 2011. The parade is now celebrating its 70th year. Reformer File Photo

WARDSBORO HOSTS SOUTHERN VERMONT’S LONGEST-RUNNING FOURTH OF JULY PARADE

70 and still going strong

By Anita Rafael WARDSBORO, Vt.

For 58 of the 70 years the villagers of Wardsboro have been organizing the town’s Fourth of July parade and street fair, resident Bette Allen Parsons has been part of it in one way or another — early on, as a pint-size helper serving food, and all her adult life, as an allin volunteer and committee member.

To honor her, and the countless things she has done to make Wardsboro a wonderful place to be born, grow up, raise a family and retire to, she

was chosen to be grand marshal of this year’s parade.

Parsons, 73, will be the red-, white- and blue-clad great-grandmother wearing mirrored sunglasses, as she cruises by the cheering, clapping crowds with one hand on the throttle of her gleaming, bright red 1800cc Honda Goldwing Trike, while waving with the other. You can’t miss Parsons, she’ll be right up front.

Let’s look back, though, at the year the parade began, and Parsons was just 3 years old.

On Independence Day 1949, Harry S. Truman, president of the United States, was midway

68 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

through the first year of his first elected term in office. On that same day, a Monday, the people of the tranquil little township of Wardsboro — population at the time: 400 — held their first patriotic parade and street fair on Main Street.

The parade route, along what was then an unpaved lane, passed between the two-story, Greek Revival-style Town Hall and the white-clapboarded Methodist church. The marchers went up a way, just beyond a handful of 100-year-old homes and cow barns, then turned around in a pasture and came back down.

For each of the past 70 years since then, the townspeople, under the leadership of the Fourth of July Committee and the help of dozens of steadfast volunteers, have recreated that first celebration.

The parade takes place on the same quaint street [it has been paved for some time now], goes up past the Town Hall and church, same as always, by the same seven or eight old houses and now-empty cow barns, and back again. With about 100 participants, it’s not a very long parade, but the bonus is that everyone gets to see it twice.

The event committee claims

that this is the longest continuously running Fourth of July celebration in Vermont.

“It would be easy to take it for granted that after hosting this for so long that nothing ever changes at Wardsboro’s festivities, but over the years, we’ve added lots of different things to create more fun for everyone,” said Katryna Fitzpatrick, the committee’s executive director since last year.

But, what hasn’t changed?

The parade.

“Our parade will always be at the heart of our patriotism on the fourth,” she said.

“So, this year, to make it more inspiring, we’ve sent out dozens of personal invitations for marchers and floats to scout groups, fire departments, schools, clubs, antique auto owners, equestrians, businesses, politicians, local officials and private individuals to join us on the Fourth.”

It is free to march in this historic little procession, and, actually, people of all ages are invited.

“We hope to boost the spirit of competition, too,” Fitzpatrick said.

In truth, the minute the participants step into pre-parade formation along South Wardsboro Road, between the bridge over the Wardsboro Brook and the turn for Dump Road, there is no one in the lineup who doesn’t covet the bragging rights that come with winning a big, blue ribbon for

TOP: Father and son team Barry, left, and Kris Fornuto flip a rack of barbeque chicken during Wardsboro's Fourth of July festival in 2011. Reformer File Photo RIGHT: Trevor Plimpton, Christel, Matthew and Mackenzie Boyle, Kathy Plimpton, and Lily Spencer, left to right, celebrate their ‘Most Patriotic’ award atop the Plimpton Excavating float during the Wardsboro Fourth of July Parade in 2010. Reformer File Photo

UpCountryOnline.com | 69

best horse or dog presentation, best patriotic or historical float, best business float, best musical float or marching band, best walking group, best tractor, best antique car, best antique truck, best sports car, best fire engine or emergency vehicle and best fire department.

“What strikes me about this event is that the people who participate in the parade and the volunteers who work all day are so genuine,” said Fitzpatrick, a lifelong Wardsboro resident. “Their excitement on the Fourth is contagious, and the spectators

feel that they are part of that.

People linger in town long after the parade passes by.”

Many of the thousands who head to Wardsboro for a good time, as well as “good eats, good arts and crafts and fun outdoor shopping” on the town’s “Big Fourth,” are not aware that the event serves more than a patriotic purpose.

The Rev. Pete Carlson, the master of ceremonies for the day, explains that it is sponsored by the town’s three churches, a congregation known collectively as the Wardsboro Yoked Parish,

If you go...

70th Wardsboro Fourth of July Parade and Street Fair Main Street, Wardsboro, Vt. 4thofJulyWardsboro.com Street fair opens at 9 a.m., rain or shine. Parade kicks off at 10 a.m. on Route VT-100, turning by the Wardsboro Country Store and heading along Main Street. Satellite parking $4, with all-day shuttles.

Important note: Main Street is closed for vehicular traffic for several hours July 4th.

What’s happening?

Parade, 50 arts, crafts, clothing, and wares vendors at the street fair, plus: chicken barbecue, burgers, hot dogs, ice cream, pie sale, bake sale, strawberry shortcakes, white elephant sale, raffles, children’s games, rubber ducky race, “skate jam” skateboard competition, antique quilt show, used-book sale, historical exhibits, and an art, antiques and collectibles tent sale.

Sign up for the parade Email: wardsboroparade@gmail.com

As his father, David, far left, and others watch, James Owen, then 8-years-old, winds up for a swing at the ring-the-bell game during Wardsboro’s 4th of July festival in 2011. Reformer File Photo

70 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

which shares the profits with the community at large. Because of the ongoing success of the Fourth of July parade and events, the parish is able to keep money available at all times to help townspeople who are facing hardship, and need food or emergency financial assistance for a short time.

“For those reasons, it ’s worth the tremendous time and effort,” he said. “It’s a big event for such a small town to organize, and even so, we’ll start thinking about how to make it better and more wonderful for next year on the

morning of July fifth.”

The entire day — from the parade kickoff, the peal of the church bell, and the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at precisely 10 a.m. to the last bite of the last open-pit barbecued chicken sometime later in the afternoon — always has been a spirited snapshot of old-fashioned Rockwellian Americana.

If you’re seeking to spark some sentimental feelings about the words Old Glory on this Fourth of July, the old Main Street in old Wardsboro might be the only place you’ll find it. •

Festivals and Events JULY 4

Sawyer Library, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.

Reading and Celebration of the Declaration of Independence

Williamstown Theatre Festival actors read the Declaration of Independence and a selection from “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July,” a speech by Frederick Douglass, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Gather on the library quad west of Sawyer Library. In case of inclement weather, the event will take place inside Sawyer Library.

Bennington Battle Monument Bennington, Vt. benningtonbattlemonument.com Historic games and Colonial fun leading up to the reading of the Declaration of Independence, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Brattleboro’s Independence Day Parade Brattleboro, Vt. facebook.com/pg/BrattleboroGoesFourth The annual Brattleboro Goes Fourth kicks off at 10 a.m. with a parade along Canal and Main streets to the Town Common. Public concerts, sporting events and family activities at Living Memorial Park continue in the afternoon and evening. Fireworks start at 9:30 p.m.

Pittsfield Fourth of July Parade Pittsfield, Mass. pittsfieldparade.com and facebook. com/PittsfieldFourthOfJulyParade Themed “The Berkshires – Past, Present and Future,” the annual parade kicks off at 10 a.m. in downtown Pittsfield. The parade begins at South, East Housatonic and West Housatonic streets and proceeds along South Street onto North Street and turns onto Wahconah Street.

The Independence Day 5K Run precedes the parade, at 9:15 a.m.

View the college’s collection of the Founding Documents in the Chapin Gallery, on the second floor of Sawyer Library, from noon to 1 p.m. and 2 to 3 p.m.

70th Wardsboro Fourth of July Parade and Street Fair Wardsboro, Vt. 4thofjulywardsboro.com and on facebook.com/ Wardsboro4thofJulyParadeandStreetFair Street fair opens at 9 a.m., rain or shine.

Parade kicks off at 10 a.m. on Route VT-100, turning by the Wardsboro Country Store and heads along Main Street. Satellite parking $4, with all-day shuttles.

JULY 13 Hilltown Brouhaha Washington Park, Route 8, Washington, Mass. hilltownbrouhaha.org Annual Becket-Washington Community Fair. Vendors, music, food, fun for everyone, beer garden and music.

Williamstown Hometown Parade

21st Eagle Street Beach Party and Adult Fiesta

Williamstown, Mass. williamstownchamber.com

Eagle Street, North Adams, Mass. explorenorthadams.com

Annual parade kicks off at 11 a.m. Parade route begins at Southworth Street and ends on Spring Street. Hot dog barbecue follows at noon on Walden Street. Other events include an Independence 5K Fun Run at 8 a.m., community yoga at 9 a.m., a free movie at Images Cinema at 2:30 p.m. and fireworks at Taconic Golf Club at 9:30 p.m.

More than 250,000 pounds of sand is trucked in to create a beach in the middle of the state’s smallest city. A family-friendly beach party runs from 3:30 to 6 p.m. An adult-oriented fiesta, complete with margaritas on the beach and live music, follows from 7 to 10 p.m.

Reading of the Declaration of Independence and Frederick Douglass speech

Chatham’s Summerfest 2019

JULY 20 Chatham, N.Y. visitchathamny.com/chatham-summerfest

72 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

Celebrate the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the village with two stages featuring music and entertainment, food trucks, activities for kids, a farmers market, artisan vendors, a special commemorative beer from Chatham Brewing and more. Plenty of activities for children, including face painting and train rides, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

JULY 26 Deerfield Valley Blueberry Festival Runs through Aug. 4 Various locations in Southern Vermont’s Deerfield Valley vermontblueberry.com This annual festival celebrates all things blueberry! Events for all ages, including a blueberry slip and slide, parade, craft fair, classic cars, block party and lakeside dining. Visit the website for event listings and times.

JULY 27 Blueberry Festival Parade Dover, Vt. vermontblueberry.com Parade featuring local floats and marching bands starts at 11 a.m. and travels north on Route 100 to Country Club Road. End-of-parade barbecue and crafts at Dover Forge at noon.

Blueberry Bash Mount Snow, 39 Mount Snow Road, West Dover, Vt. mountsnow.com After the Blueberry Parade, Mount Snow is hosting a daylong festival full of various backyard games, live music, a barbecue, beer and more. Admission to the event is free, and games/activities are free.

Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour July 27 and July 28 Various locations in Western Mass. hilltown6.com A self-guided tour of nine potters at eight open studios. Guest artists, demonstrations and local foods at each location. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.

Visit website for participating artists and map.

AUG. 2 41st Southern Vermont Arts and Craft Festival Runs through Aug. 4 Camelot Village, Bennington, Vt. craftproducers.com This juried fine art and craft fair features nearly 200 exhibitors who work in a variety of styles and mediums. Specialty foods and artisan spirits are in a separate section. Additional roaming entertainers delight children and adults.

Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

All state historic sites in Vermont are free. Commemorative ceremony, 7 p.m. at the Bennington Battlefield, Route NY67, Hoosick Falls, N.Y.

Celebrate Stephentown Runs through Aug. 18 Stephentown, N.Y. celebratestephentown.com Opening reception Friday night. Fullschedule family-friendly events featuring music, local vendors and food, open houses, a classic car show and more.

Most events are free; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Saturday; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Visit website for events, locations and times.

AUG. 10

AUG. 17

12th AMFF Fly-Fishing Festival

Celebration of the Battle of Bennington

The American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, Vt. amff.org The American Museum of Fly Fishing’s signature event of the summer — a growing event that showcases the joy of fly fishing with vendors, demonstrations and a gathering of people who are all equally enthused about the sport. Enjoy fly-tying and casting demonstrations, try your hand at casting vintage rods, learn how to tie a saltwater fly and mingle with like-minded people as you share the joy of the great outdoors. Free admission, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Aug. 17 and Aug. 18 Bennington Battle Monument, 15 Monument Circle, Old Bennington Vt. benningtonbattlemonument.com and bennington.com/battleday

Windham Country History Fair

Saturday begins with the 15th Battle Day 5K road race starting and ending at the monument. Race starts at 9:30 a.m., with the firing of a cannon or Revolutionary War-era rifle. Other events on Saturday include presentations by the Moodus Drum & Fife Corps, and a talk on notorious women. An encampment of Revolutionary War reenactors will be at the monument both days, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Check websites for updated information, locations and times.

Newfane Common, Route 30, Newfane, Vt. Historicalsocietyofwindhamcounty.org

Greek Fest 2019

AUG. 10

Step back in time at the Seventh biennial Windham County History Fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. A festival of vintage exhibits, demonstrations and historic tours, with exhibits by the Vermont Historical Society as well as many of Windham County’s historical societies. Events include a genealogy presentation; antiques appraisals; book evaluations; woodworking, carding, spinning and quilting demonstrations, and much more. Free admission.

Aug. 17 and Aug. 18 St. George Greek Orthodox Church, 73 Bradford St., Pittsfield, Mass. christisrisen.com

AUG. 16

50 Main St., Stockbridge, Mass. stockbridgechamber.org

Bennington Battle Day

Over 80 artisans and crafters display

Great Greek food and pastries handmade from traditional family recipes, gifts, music and dancing, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Saturday; noon to 6 p.m., Sunday.

27th Stockbridge Summer Arts and Crafts Show

their work, ranging from paintings to ceramics, fiberware to glass blowing; all exhibitors are jury-selected. Free admission; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

AUG. 18 Bennington Battle Day Parade Downtown Bennington bennington.com/battleday Parade begins at 12:30 p.m. Parade will run from Main and Safford streets to Depot Street, north on Depot Street to River Street, and end at the fire station.

AUG. 24 Sun and Fun Festival Second Congregational Church, 155 Hillside St., Bennington, Vt. facebook.com/sunandfun Live music, homemade luncheon, kids activities, workshops, educational displays, and over 25 local groups participate to celebrate the Earth and sustainability. Free admission; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

AUG. 31 24th Southern Vermont Garlic and Herb Festival Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 Camelot Village, Bennington, Vt. lovegarlic.com Everything from garlic ice cream to garlic jelly, pickled garlic, roasted garlic, garlic braids and, of course, plain garlic bulbs of every variety will be available for sampling and purchase, along with planting and braiding and cooking demonstrations. Over 200 vendors will be at this farmers market-style weekend event; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.

25th Brewers Festival Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 Mount Snow, 39 Mount Snow Road, West Dover, Vt. mountsnow.com The Mount Snow Brewers Festival — it’s a celebration of beer, music and food — celebrates its 25th anniversary. Nearly 50 breweries will be on hand pouring their beers and ciders from 100-plus taps. Noon to 6 p.m. both days.

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FROM SCRABBLE BOARDS TO SUSHI ROLLS, FANCY PANTS CAKES MAKES IT ALL

These cakes are anything but vanilla

By Francesca Olsen BENNINGTON, Vt.

As the highlight reels of our lives become more curated and more public, we live in a world where more is more — ornate desserts, lush tinsel backgrounds, and big, shiny balloons shaped like letters.

Special occasions have always been special — but nowadays, it’s not only about the moment, or the milestone, or the meal.

It’s about the photo.

Jenica McEvoy, of Bennington, knows this well. Her business, Fancy Pants Cakes, has been creating aesthetically pleasing and architecturally sound confections for weddings, birthdays and other occasions for years.

From dinosaurs to chairs to farm animals to sushi rolls and beyond, McEvoy has been an inspired baker all her life; first winning ribbons at county fairs growing up in Galway. N.Y., and then making beautiful

Jenica McEvoy creates ivy leaves in preparation for a graduation cake. Photo

by Holly Pelczynski

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cakes for her friends when she lived in Idaho and California.

Now, she makes her creations as a custom business in Bennington, which she has operated since 2012. (Before Fancy Pants Cakes, McEvoy had a career in environmental education — she has worked as a park ranger, at the Santa Barbara Zoo and has managed nonprofit organizations’ education programs, among other roles.)

Besides her work with clients, McEvoy stays up on cake trends by going to trade shows, taking classes and practicing techniques via YouTube videos.

In her baking career, she has been featured in magazines and exhibited at the New York Cake Show. You might know her from her chocolate-garlic buttercream cupcakes, which she sells every year at the Garlic Festival in Bennington.

Through this work, McEvoy has seen people’s expectations and ideas evolve.

“Cakes are getting way more involved,” she said, referencing the “yearbook” that Wilton, one of the largest cake supply manufacturers, publishes every year with trendy new

cake decoration ideas. “Yearbooks from 10 years ago, compared to the different edible mediums available now — it’s come a long way.”

Taste is as important as looks Want your cat-shaped cake to taste like pumpkin?

No problem.

Unlike the cakes of shows

THIS PAGE: Custom-order cakes in the form of a shirt, a Scrabble board and a roll of sushi, as well as a more traditional wedding cake NEXT PAGE: All you need is love and cupcakes Photos provided by Fancy Pants Cakes

78 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019

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like “Nailed It!” and “Cupcake Wars,” McEvoy knows what’s inside counts just as much as what’s outside. Her cakes and fillings are from scratch and fully customizable.

“I actually encourage people not to do vanilla,” McEvoy said.

“While my vanilla cake is good and it goes with lots of different buttercreams, it’s nice to be able to explore other flavors and be surprised a little bit.”

McEvoy also goes the extra mile and makes Swiss meringue buttercream, which is made with whipped egg whites, rather than American buttercream, which is made by whipping together butter, confectioner’s sugar and flavoring.

“I do it because it’s delicious!” she said. “But it takes more time.”

What’s most popular de-

Fancy Pants Cakes Bennington, Vt. fancypantscakes.com Contact: 802-379-8459 fancypantscakesVT@ gmail.com

To order: $100 minimum; custom cake orders take

pends on the season — fall weddings in Vermont tend to favor maple, pumpkin or salted caramel, McEvoy says.

Inspired designs

She is open to all sorts of ideas — some recent favorites include a full-size Scrabble board with letter tiles (the fam-

time, so order well in advance of your event.

Delivery available.

Smaller orders can be picked up in Bennington, but in general, Jenica McEvoy will deliver to the Berkshires and Southern Vermont.

ily provided a layout with the words they wanted spelled out); a five-tier wedding cake; and a toilet paper roll, oddly enough, for a birthday, with the words “everything turns to crap at 40.”

“I posted it on my website, and someone else ordered the same thing because they liked the idea so much,” she said.

Working with clients to make their idea into an edible reality is McEvoy’s favorite part of her business.

“I love people who come to me and say, ‘I love cake, this is an important part of our wedding. But how do we put a part of ourselves, and our personalities, and the ambience of our wedding, into the decoration of the cake?’” she said. “I love helping guide them through that process, looking at photos and getting to the core of what their vision is for the wedding — and how to express that in a cake.

“When we go through this process together and I can take their ideas and present them with a sketch — and then they come back and say, ‘Yes! Let’s go for it! — that makes me feel really good.” •

Jenica McEvoy brushes ivy leaves with sugar glitter in preparation for a graduation cake. Photo by Holly Pelczynski

80 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | July/August 2019