From TCExtra.com
Autumn festival season underway
By Michael Marciano – Editor
09/18
WINSTED — The smell of kettle corn, apple fritters and pumpkin pie is in the air. Winsted area residents are gearing up for a full calendar of fall festival events, including the town’s own annual Fall Foliage Festival Saturday, Oct. 3, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The recipe for this year’s festival is similar to previous years, with dozens of vendors expected to set up booths along the north side of Main Street. There will be street performers and live music, plus the Winsted Elks Car Show lining up just west of Union Street.
“I think there will be a lot of new vendors this year,” said Helen Bunnell, executive director of the nonprofit Friends of Main Street, which is organizing the festival. “There has been a lot of interest this year in the festival, and there are several new businesses. People should get their reservations for booths in early if they are interested in exhibiting.”
Bunnell said Friends of Main Street expects about 10,000 visitors to the Fall Foliage Festival and Elks Car Show each year. New to this year’s car show will be an outdoor café hosted by the Elks. As usual, the lodge will also staff a food tent with hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage, fried dough and soda.
“Also, the Highland Lake Watershed Association is celebrating its 50th anniversary, so they will have some antique boats and memorabilia from the lake,” Bunnell said. “We’re excited about that.”
The festival will also include a performance and workshop with Scott Kessel of Connecticut-based Recycled Rhythms, which teaches participants to create musical instruments out of recycled materials.
Anyone interested in setting up a booth or volunteering at the Fall Foliage Festival should call Friends of Main Street at 860-738-3351. For information on the Elks Car Show, call the Winsted Elks Lodge at 860-379-8045. Information is also available online at friendsofmainstreet.org.
For car enthusiasts who haven’t had enough at the end of the Fall Foliage Festival, New Hartford’s annual Cartober Fest is the following day, Sunday, Oct. 4, at the Collinsville Antiques Company building on Route 44. For more information, call 860-379-2290.
Of course, the Fall Foliage Festival isn’t the only big event happening in this area as autumn rolls around. The annual Riverton Fair on the Riverton Fairgrounds has been scheduled for the following weekend, Friday through Sunday, Oct. 9 to 11. This year’s festival will feature a special one-price bracelet for children, which will allow them to ride amuseuments for several hours. There will be food, live music, photography, livestock and much more. For more information, call the Riverton General Store at 860-379-0811.
Other fairs happening in the coming weeks include the Haight-Brown Vineyard Harvest Festival in Litchfield, Sept. 19 to 20 (860-567-4045); the Ski Sundown Brewer’s Fest in New Hartford, Sept. 26 (skisundown.com); Oktoberfest at Quassy Park in Middlebury, Sept. 26 to 27 (quassy.com); the Harwinton Fair, Oct. 3 to 4 (harwintonfair.com); the Bethlehem Garlic & Harvest Festival, Oct. 10 (203-266-7350); and the Middlebury Irish Festival at Quassy Park, Oct. 10 (quassy.com).
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