Labor Day weekend is past, nights are getting cooler, apples redder and gardening is wrapping up for the year. As foliage season approaches, let’s take a minute and reflect on what a spectacular summer we’ve had.
Despite the first half of June being cold and rainy, the rest of the summer has been spectacular in terms of what Mother Nature provided for us. We had our requisite number of muggy days, a few blisteringly hot days and then some just perfect Vermont summer weather. The thunderstorms were few, the river got a little low, but, otherwise, who could complain?
From the end of May, we had events and happenings too numerous to count. The Fourth of July celebration in Warren was memorable, as always (and featured U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in all his rock star glory). The Mad Marathon followed closely on its heels, attracting almost a thousand runners and their families and friends to The Valley.
Then the Vermont Festival of the Arts started, bringing with it hundreds of events and tenfold that many visitors. An event that grows every year, the Vermont Festival of the Arts has come into its own and its success speaks for itself.
The Vermont Music Fest at Kenyon’s offered two and a half days of camping, great music and food in August. While attendance was not what was hoped for (lots of competing events that weekend), it was well handled by the Mad River Valley Rotary, who presented it.
The Green Mountain Stage Race rolled through The Valley and Vermont over Labor Day with some 700 riders and their friends and families. The four stages of that race went off without a hitch, the spectators were thrilled and the racers broke records.
Foliage and its attendant tourists are still to come as well as SIPtemberfest, Mad River Glen’s Green & Gold Weekend and Sugarbush’s Community Weekend.
Thanks to all the boards and volunteers, organizers and paid staff who made this summer as stellar as it was.
And thanks, too, to Mother Nature, who gave us so much sunshine and fair weather.
