Resilience and Re-LOVE-ution!
Event Name: 21st Annual North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival
Event Date: Saturday and Sunday, September 28 and 29, 2019. 10 AM to 5 PM both days. Shine or Rain
Location: Forster’s Farm, 60 Chestnut Hill Rd. Orange, MA. No pets allowed on site or in parking lots.
Travel and parking info; schedule of entertainment, activities, and exhibitors: www.garlicandarts.org
Facebook: facebook.com/NorthQuabbinGarlicAndArtsFestival/ Twitter hashtag: #NQGarlicandArts
Colorful image: jpg postcard image available for promotional use at garlicandarts.org
Admission: $10 (Good for the weekend!) $5 seniors, students, EBT cardholders. Kids 12 and under free.
Come prepared: No ATM on site, bring a water bottle for free water, and a bag to carry great goods!
Stages are filling with fabulous performers, vendors growing and crafting fabulous wares, and tents going up in preparation for the 21st Annual North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival, September 29 and 30 in Orange MA. The family friendly “festival that stinks” is renowned for exceptional art, local farm products, fabulous food, endless entertainment, and inspiration for a hopeful future. Held on a historic farm amid fall foliage, the event attracts and unites many thousands locally and across New England.
Great music, entertainment, and spoken word emanate from three stages and the rolling fields. The line-up of performers is testimony to the culturally diverse and abundant talents of the region. Over 100 bountiful booths feature regional artists, farmers, community organizations, and healing arts; everyone can strengthen the economy by purchasing locally crafted and grown! Travel the garlic globe in the chef demo tent, and fill your belly with farm fresh and savory cuisine in four food courts. Over eighty engaging workshops and demos, activities and performances are scheduled throughout the weekend. Garlic games abound on the main field, including the famous raw garlic-eating contest. Also for kids of all ages, a free art tent with clay fun, a giant weaving loom, and a path to illustrate your own “Go Greener” goals. Orange is the New Green: trash free (last year only two bags for 10,000 people!) with everything else recycled or transformed into fertile compost to make gardens not garbage. Bring your own bottle for the free drinking water provided, or buy a souvenir refillable one along with an artist-designed festival tee shirt and collector cookbook. The ‘Portal to the Future’ at the north end of the festival site is the place to visit for all things renewable energy, with inspiring local living workshops all weekend. Special urine-collecting toilets are provided in collaboration with The Rich Earth Institute. Make your golden contribution to the largest known event to divert urine, to be transformed into natural fertilizer!
Family friendly admission: $10 (Good for the weekend!) $5 for seniors, students, or EBT cardholders. Kids 12 and under free. NEW! The festival now participates in the MA Card to Culture program with discounts to EBT cardholders, plus accepts commongood.earth for admission payment.
Parking is FREE but limited so please carpool: on-site parking is for accessible tags and carpools of three or more; free nearby shuttle lot for all others. No pets allowed (service dogs only). Biking encouraged! Garlic lovers are hot, but no smoking on the festival site or shuttle bus lines. The festival is volunteer organized and run; proceeds keep the event sustainable and affordable, and support the festival’s community grant program for local art, agriculture, health and energy projects. Over $45,000 has been contributed to local organizations as well as socially responsible loan funds, and the festival donates hundreds of entry passes annually to organizations that serve low income local residents.
According to the organizers who are all volunteers, and friends and neighbors, “Twenty one years ago we dreamed up an idea to celebrate the beauty and bounty of our region, so often-overlooked, and ignite the cultural and agricultural economy of the North Quabbin. We each put 20 dollars on the table over a shared meal to initiate the first Garlic and Arts Festival, along with faith in the power of community and creativity, and a ‘let’s just do it’ attitude. More than ever, people of all walks of life need places to come together in celebration and gain inspiration for resilient lives and communities, and a saner world. That is at the heart of, and what happens every moment at the festival, and well beyond.”
Get the whole bulb at garlicandarts.org including the 2019 schedule of exhibitors, entertainment, and workshops and activities for all ages. Come find out why the festival is consistently rated in the top three among hundreds across the region by the Valley Advocate Reader’s Poll. While in the North Quabbin, stop in at local businesses or enjoy ample hiking or paddling.
A volunteer committee of friends and neighbors, and Seeds of Solidarity Education Center, a non-profit organization, organize the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival. Supporters include the Forster/Stewart Family, over 100 exhibitors, and about 200 community volunteers the festival weekend!
