‘Scent-sational’ Garlic & Arts Fest Approaches
The Recorder, September 9th, 2015
ORANGE — The 17th Annual North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival will be a “scent-sational” place to be on Sept. 26 and 27. About 100 booths feature juried regional artists, local farm products, garlic cuisine, healing arts and community organizations that fill the fields of historic Forsters Farm.
Many offer demonstrations of their craft at their booths. Music, performance, spoken word, and dance fill three stages.
Demonstrations by chefs, plus farm fresh cuisine from 20 diverse food vendors will be offered in food-court tents overlooking the festivities.
The festival, which prides itself on being green, produces only three bags of trash for 10,000 people with everything else recycled or transformed into fertile compost, according to organzers.
The North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival was awarded Second Best Festival of hundreds across the region by the Valley Advocate reader’s poll, as well as a featured event in the Mohawk Trail 250th anniversary celebration. Organizers like to say “The Festival that Stinks is also the festival that sustains art, agriculture and rural living.”
More than 60 performances and workshops over the weekend offer entertainment and education. The 2015 Music Stage will feature Celtic Heels, Maris Otter, Abe Loomis and Bright Lines, Trailer Park, Inside Out Dance Company, O You Villain, Yiddishkeit Klezmer Ensemble, and De Lomas y Sones. The Family Stage features Tom Ricardi with Birds of Prey, Bill Downes, Josh LeVangie, Western Mass Bellydance, Gaia Roots, and the Pistoleros.
Human Error Publishing presents a Spoken Word Stage featuring 40 poets and readers, nestled in a beautiful forest amphitheater. The Renewable Energy Area inspires local living with energizing info all weekend and workshops titled Community Solar Unveiled, Allying with the Fungal Kingdom, Cover Crops for Home Gardens, Heirloom Madness, The Basics of Lacto-fermentation, What’s so Hot about Heat Pumps, and Building an Affordable High Performance Home. If you’re hungry for more, the Chef Demo Tent features local culinary artists from The Gill Tavern, Stockbridge Farm, Wheelhouse Truck Farm, The Five Eyed Fox, Culinary Consultants, and Osteria Vespa.
Admission is $5 per day for adults, weekend pass $8, kids 12 and under free.
There are free shuttles all day from a nearby lot until 5 p.m. with onsite parking for carpools of three or more and handicap tags only.
No pets and no smoking on the festival fields or shuttle bus lines. Visit garlicandarts.org for more information.
