Mayfest - Montpelier moves outside!

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Lighting Up Montpelier!

Thanks to extraordinary community effort, Downtown Montpelier has largely recovered from

the devastating flood this summer. Its commercial center remains fragile, however, and needs

your help.

To attract residents and tourists downtown, make walking in the city safer during the winter

months, and to celebrate the resilience and recovery of the capital city, Montpelier Alive is

working to illuminate up to seven historic bridges along the Winooski River and its North

Branch.

In the winter of 2023, as part of a pilot project, Montpelier Alive, Montpelier’s downtown

revitalization non-profit organization, lit up the Langdon Street bridge. Twinkling lights wrapped

around the steel trusses illuminated the center of town and reflected off the river. What was

once a dark side street became a magnet for holiday shoppers, evening dining and a vibrant

music scene. The sparkling bridge declared that Montpelier was open for business and

welcomed all to the party!

Montpelier Alive is collaborating with local historians and naturalists to use Montpelier’s unique

history to inform each bridge’s illumination design. For instance, the Rialto bridge will be

underlit to highlight the North Branch River that runs beneath two lanes of traffic, two

sidewalks and an entire building on State Street! The trusses of the Granite Street bridge will be

lined with large white bulbs, to highlight the engineering of the structure and mimic the rivets

holding the steel beams together. The impact of seven bridges, each uniquely lit, will transfer

Montpelier’s cityscape this winter.

Katie Trautz, Executive Director of Montpelier Alive, believes "Illuminating Montpelier's Bridges

will not only be impactful for our downtown economy as visitors from near and far come to

witness the lights, but the project will act as a metaphor for community resiliency, bringing our

town together for a better future."

This initiative will not require Montpelier tax dollars. Donations and grants will provide the

funds necessary for building the electric infrastructure, the services of the New England Holiday

Lighting Company, the professionals responsible for the magnificent Shelburne Museum Winter

Lights display, and the modest amount of electricity required for the energy efficient LED lights.

Lighting will be limited to times when downtown restaurants and theaters are open to allow

dark skies for sleeping and enjoying the night stars.

Help Montpelier Alive light up the capital city this winter! If the campaign reaches its $13,350

goal by May 31, 2024 the Montpelier Bridge Illumination Project will receive a matching grant of

$26,650 from DHCD’s Better Places program. Click HERE for project details and to DONATE.

The focus of the Better Places grant is on the three bridges that illuminate downtown: the

Rialto, Langdon and School Street bridges. Any remaining funds will help build the

infrastructure to also light the Bailey Avenue, Taylor Street, and Main Street bridges that cross

the Winooski River. Montpelier Alive plans to continue raising funds for all seven bridges over

the next year. For more information on the Bridge project, visit Montpelier Alive’s webpage:

montpelieralive.com/bridges

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Discover Montpelier

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updated for 2023

Family Fest

Join us on the State House lawn for great family entertainment from 3-5pm! Get some delicious food from the nearby vendors on State Street, enjoy the Bouncy Houses on the Statehouse Lawn, watch and enjoy our performers on the Family Fest stage.

Family Fest Stage Schedule (Statehouse Lawn):

3pm - 5pm - Bouncy Houses

3pm - 5pm - Kids' Games with New Horizons

3 pm - 3:45 pm - Dance, Sing, and Jump Around with Liz Benjamin, music by Joanne Garton and Company

Everyone gets to enjoy easy and silly dances, all taught and called with live music, for children of all ages and their grown-ups. Celebrate the 3rd by dancing on the Statehouse lawn!

4pm - Big Nazo and the Providence Drum Troupe

Big Nazo with the Providence Drum Troupe: BIG NAZO LAB is an international , larger-than-life-sized performance group and Creature-making studio based in Providence, RI that employs a variety of mask and puppet performance techniques to create innovative, unusual characters & situations. Their shows & audience interactive strolls feature giant go-go dancing monsters, mischievous mountain trolls, bizarre extra-terrestrials, and hilarious human-animal hybrids who take turns invading stages and street corners while Intergalactic Zoo-Keepers and Mad Scientists weave cosmic tales of ridiculous wonder. Their work has appeared on stages, streets & schools throughout New England as well as in independent films, TV projects, and festive extravaganzas throughout Asia, Europe and North America.

Providence Drum Troupe is comprised of musicians, acrobats, flow arts life-size alien puppets, hoopers, lasers and dancers from near and far who create funky beats with positive interactive energy demonstrating that living in harmony with one another is not an antiquated notion.