Southern Vermont Flannel Festival held at Rockingham Hill Farm

A couple of “hoopers” dancing to the music of the Break maids at the GFRCC’s Vermont Flannel Festival
A couple of “hoopers” dancing to the music of the Break maids at the GFRCC’s Vermont Flannel Festival. Photo by Bill Lockwood

ROCKINGHAM, Vt. – The Great Falls Regional Chamber of Commerce’s second Southern Vermont Flannel Festival was held last Saturday and Sunday at Rockingham Hill Farm on Meeting House Road in Rockingham. Intended to celebrate community and welcome autumn, as well as the beautiful Vermont fall foliage, it featured live music by a number of performers, a corn hole tournament and pie bake off, craft beer and other spirits, pumpkins, and food, crafts, and other vendors.

Flannel wear was abundant among the crowd that attended though it was not mandatory, and anyone wearing flannel got a discount off their admission. Weather on the Saturday started off dreary, but the sun came out for the bulk of the afternoon.

Betsy Thurston, director of the Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance said, “I can’t believe the amount of vehicles we ushered into the parking lot, and it’s only 1:30.”

She noted seeing cars from nearby Massachusetts and New York and as far away as Colorado and Virginia. She added, “And the sun came out!”

Sue Smith of Fact-TV said there were “more people than last time, new vendors, and so much flannel.”

One local couple would have liked to have seen a flannel vendor at the festival. They said, “You can get beer, but you can’t get a flannel shirt.” Any other critiques were few and far between in the very upbeat spirited attendees.

Chamber President Kathleen Govotski said the first year attracted about 1,600 people. She felt they would attract that many and more this year. Interviewed during the judging of the pie-eating contest that had 15 entries from traditional apple and blueberry to key lime and a chocolate pie with vodka crust she said of the three judges, “Those guys are eating a lot of pie.”

Chamber Director Debra Collier said that the first festival was in 2019, and last year it was canceled due to Covid. “We were so disappointed since the first festival was so well attended and just plain fun.”

Collier said it all came about with Chamber members looking to do a fundraiser and “tossing around ideas of a fall festival for the Rockingham area.” Charlie Jarras offered his Rockingham Hill Farm to host the event, “and flannel just sort of naturally popped into our conversation as a part of all that is Vermont… We feel so fortunate to have Charlie’s farm available to us, and we are blown away [at the outcome this year].”

She also said that Covid still affected this year’s event. Planning was later due to waiting for the governor’s guidelines and having masks and hand sanitizing stations as well as not offering “hands on” activities such as face painting for kids.

New this year was a corn hole tournament hosted by the Rockingham Department of Recreation and the pie contest with prizes generously donated by King Arthur Flour. There were also some surprise entertainers between the talented bands lineup that included The Break Maids, Debbie and The Downers, Springfield Stringers, Low Lily, and The Stockwell Brothers.

Emily of the Break Maids from southern Vermont said, “We’re happy to be here. This is a great stage and a great place to be.”

Collier added, “This year, since we have some vacant seats on our Board, its been primarily five of us planning the event. If you’d like to be on the Chamber Board, please contact the Chamber office, or reach out to a board member and join us to make a difference in our community. Likewise, the generous and supportive sponsors make our event possible. Without them, we could not make all the magic happen.”

Anyone interested can contact debra.gfrcc@gmail.com.

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