The sun shone on the 13th annual Bennington Rhubarb Festival Saturday at Sawyer Park.
“We weren’t drowned out like last year, so that was really good. We had great weather,” said Leslie MacGregor, director of Bennington’s G.E.P. Dodge Library. “This year was very well-attended, and we had great volunteers. We had one entire family doing the petting zoo, which they do every year; we had our nonprofits, and we had some returning and some new vendors who were wonderful.”
Rhubarb Festival guests enjoyed rhubarb lemonade, a rhubarb pie baking contest, live music, a farm petting zoo by Glory Be Farm, children’s activities, food trucks, and a wide selection of local vendors. The festival, which has been running since 2013, benefits the G.E.P. Dodge Library building fund.
MacGregor said, “Everyone was really happy about the food trucks this year.”
Food trucks at the festival included Bumbles’ Birria, Becky’s Pies and Desserts, Goodfellas Grub Food Truck, and Mama Maria’s Gyros.
“We had Greek food, Italian, Mexican, we had Becky’s Pies, and we had several bakers among our vendors, so that went great,” MacGregor said.
MacGregor said the festival committee is especially grateful for support from the Town of Bennington, the Select Board, the Bennington Police Department, the town office staff, and the Bennington Fire Department, which managed the parking.
“The fire department was out there all day helping with the parking — it is a long day, and they very generously take the time to help us out. They put up and take down tents, they move all the really heavy stuff around, and it is very impressive what their volunteers do for us,” MacGregor said.
This year’s volunteers include Melissa Clark, Jeremy Griffus, the Comeau Family, the Healey Family, Dwayne Searles, Wade Searles, Stan Lussier, Joe MacGregor, Deb Davidson, Pat Lapree, Betsy Davison, Deb and Rich Page, the Friends of G.E.P. Dodge Library, and others.
The Rhubarb Festival was created to raise funds for the construction of an accessible addition to the library, including an accessible public restroom.
Currently, the library does not have any public restrooms.
“We have to send people to the Town Hall,” MacGregor said. “It’s been years of trying to make this happen.”
The sponsors of this year’s Rhubarb Festival include Cory’s Septic Service, Dunkin’s of Antrim, Edmunds Ave Hardware, The Lyons Mane Salon and Spa, Meg Hardwick Realtor, and the US 202 Express Mini Mart, the T-Bird, Ashley Wadleigh Photography, Graceline Stoneworks, Y’s and Z’s Web Services, and Zach Lavoie.
