The 26th Annual Mayfest Arts and Crafts Festival, Downtown Bennington’s signature event, returns to town for this annual rite of spring. Main Street, School Street, and Pleasant Street will be closed to vehicle traffic and filled with over 95 vendors offering juried crafts and specialty food. Bring your family and friends to Downtown Bennington to shop, eat, play, listen to music, and socialize. This event is free and open to the public with plenty of free parking downtown.

There will be many different types of live performances throughout the day on four separate stages including the Thomson Family Stage in Merchants Park, a trailer stage in front of Knapps, a stage in the lot of Lucky Dragon, and a spot on Main Street off of Silver. The artists performing are No Rules Music, Immune Friction, Dualiti, Hidden Angel, Linda Allard, the Crossover Cloggers, Hale Mountain Pickers, Ray Gifford, Stephanie Avienu, Anne Marie and Veronica Jarvis, Homer's Odyssey, The Throwbacks, and the Andris Berry Band.

There will also be children’s activities, live demos, and much more. Artisans will offer a wide range of products, from handmade jewelry, clothing, sculpture, baskets, carvings and paintings, to gifts, specialty food items, and so much more. Food vendors include such treats as Jamaican and Southwestern cuisine, fried dough, fresh squeezed lemonade, and cotton candy. New this year is the Young Entrepeneurs Corner where vendors aged 13 and under will peddle their wares!

The icing on the cake is that many of our Main Street businesses will be offering special activities and deals throughout the day. We also have several wonderful restaurants downtown who will be serving up their own specialties.

Please be sure to acknowledge our wonderful volunteers when you see them. Our cleanup crew will easily go unnoticed so we want to be sure they are equally celebrated. The Girls Varsity Tennis Team is committed to perform community service and take great pride in keeping Bennington green, beautiful and clean and we are delighted that they are joining us this year to help erase all evidence of the day's festivities.

We do still need additional volunteers. Please email Jenny at [email protected]. If you are interested in fiscally sponsoring Mayfest, please email Jeanne at [email protected].

Finally, we look forward to introducing our new app, Distrix, that serves America's Main Street organizations. Entertainment schedules and Vendor lists and locations will be available on this app.

Come join us Downtown and be sure to say hello to the volunteers at the Info Booth where we are hosting a 50/50 and debuting our shopping bags and bag checking service so that you can shop until your heart is content.

For more information, contact the Better Bennington Corporation at (802) 681-5625 or [email protected].

Date:
Saturday, May 27, 2023

Time:
10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Location:
Downtown Bennington,
Bennington, VT 05201.

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