CHESTERFIELD — If the hot rod hasn’t come out of the garage yet this spring, Saturday would be the day.
Weather is looking promising for this weekend when residents meet in the center of town for a car show, and along with it a food truck and live music from the local Time Stretcher Band.
Registering a vehicle into the car parade is done by messaging the Chesterfield Fourth of July Parade Facebook page, which also outlines plans for the town’s annual Fourth of July Festival on Friday.
The highlight of Friday’s festivities is a parade that starts at 10:30 a.m., though people can go to the firehouse for a pancake breakfast starting at 7 a.m., with musical entertainment from the Rolling Scones. Other activities before and after the parade are face painting, food across from the post office and on the lawn of the Historical Society. The Town Hall will be open with a petting zoo right next to the side door.
The car show on Saturday begins at 3 p.m. and runs for four hours along corner of South Street, North Road and Main Street. Parking will be at 6 North Road. Organizers advise bringing a blanket or chair.
CUMMINGTON — For a whole three days, from 10 a.m. Friday through 3 p.m. on Sunday, Yiddish culture will be the headline in Cummington.
The homegrown KlezCummington festival will be back for a fifth year, and will host a variety of musicians and artisans of contemporary Yiddish culture — and all three days are already sold out.
This year will feature a first — the KlezCummington Landsmanshaft Mutual Aid Banquet — a culminating performance and mutual aid fundraiser, with a concert by Ira Temple & friends and theatrical performance featuring Jenny Romaine, Weaver, Ozzy Gold-Shapiro and other performers.
Drawing from the history and cultural landscapes of landsmanshaftn, which are mutual aid societies established by Jewish immigrants to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the banquet, which will be on Saturday night, will celebrate the power of collective organizing and solidarity.
Over the three days of celebration, participants will also be able to paint banners, learn Yiddish anthems and klezmer processional music, print flyers on a Yiddish letterpress, and other intergenerational, art-based activities and workshops.
KlezCummington, located on Porter Hill Road, is hosted on Nipmuc and Pocomtuc land in town, on 14 acres stewarded by Northampton-based Judaica artist, sculptor, builder, baker, and KlezCummington co-founder Emmett Leader.
Leader has spent more than 15 years transforming the property— restoring the 100-year-old barn and bringing it to life as a community gathering space.
CUMMINGTON — For the first time since 2019, the doors of the home of Cummington’s author, journalist and editor par excellence will be back open to receive guests.
William Cullen Bryant homestead, who was editor and publisher of the New York Evening Post, spent his formative years at what is now the Bryant Homestead located on Bryant Road. He returned every summer to the 195-acre property starting in 1865 until his death in 1878 — it was his place for inspiration and retreat.
The home is now overseen by the Trustees of Reservations, who are opening the house for guided tours this summer.
Guided tours will be offered at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. on July 19, Aug. 16 and Sept. 28.
Visitors are also welcome to self-tour the first floor of the house for free between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the days the tour is offered. The guided tour will include the second and third floors of the house.
The two-story-farmhouse-turned-three-story Victorian cottage is full of colonial and Victorian pieces from the poet’s family, as well as exotic memorabilia from his extensive travels to Europe and Asia.
While at the homestead, visitors can also walk the trails on the property, including the Rivulet Trail, which hugs the Rivulet, a trickling stream immortalized by Bryant’s 1823 poem of the same name. The property also features the Pine Loop, with pine trees that reach the heights of 150 feet.
Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.
