Follow your nose to the 15th Annual North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival on October 5 and 6. This scent-sational and much anticipated event fondly known as “The Festival that Stinks†emanates non-stop entertainment and education for everyone in the family.
Festival enthusiasts wander among 100 exhibitors featuring the region’s finest artists and craftspeople, farmers, specialty food creators and innovative organizations. All ages gain creative inspiration from more than 25 art and agriculture demonstrations, from leather work to weaving, cider pressing to growing garlic, composting with worms, raising bees, and turning wooden bowls. Purchasing locally grown and handcrafted products strengthens local economies! Vibrant with creative culture, sense of community, family fun and skills for local living, the festival has been likened to ‘a giant family picnic where everyone gets along.’
The fall foliage and beautiful rolling fields of the historic Forster family farm at 60 Chestnut Hill Road in Orange create a relaxing setting for fabulous performances on two stages. The 2013 main stage line-up includes: Inside / Out Dance Company, Celtic Heels Irish Dance, The Pangeans, The Equalites, Crow’s Rebellion, Gaia Roots, and The Impulse Ensemble. In the cooking demo tent, chefs from The Gill Tavern, Stockbridge Farm, The Kitchen Garden, Fireside Bar and Grill, The Farm Table and the Rendezvous will arouse your own garlic and farm-fresh creations. After you eat, enjoy a ‘Gardens not Garbage’ installation created by Seeds of Solidarity to learn how the festival- known for producing only 3 bags of trash for 10,000 people- instead generates compost sufficient to make 20 local community gardens! Orange is the New Green. There’s an incredible line-up of renewable energy and local living workshops that will energize and transform your lifestyle. Add to all this garlic games galore on the main field, a chance to try your hand at disc golf, or for those who dare, the famous raw garlic eating contest. Add to all this ample kids art and nature activities and garlic games galore including the famous raw garlic-eating contest that make this event a draw for families across New England.
Help us write the Book of Garlic! Bring your favorite garlic recipes, reminiscences about the festival (past and present), photos or drawings to be included in this exciting, if stinky, community project. Submissions will be accepted at several festival locations or email thebookofgarlic@gmail.com through February 2014.
All this for an inflation busting, family friendly admission of $5.00 per day for adults, $8.00 for a weekend pass, and kids 12 and under are always free.
To Get to the Festival: Take Route 2 to Exit 16, or Route 202 from the south, and follow the signs to the main parking area and shuttle lot on the corner of Holtshire and Fairman Roads to catch a free, five- minute ride right to the festival entrance gate. Parking at the festival site is reserved for carpools of three or more or those with handicap tags. New! Exercise enthusiasts can hike 45 minutes from the shuttle lot through the forest and over the hills to the festival via the Chestnut Hill trails.
No pets are allowed on the festival site or left in cars. Visit the website at www.garlicandarts.org for the complete schedules of exhibitors, music, entertainment, kids activities and games, chef demos, renewable energy, local living and healing arts workshops.
