OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford
Fredonia Farm Festival organizers Lauren Boyle and Greg Krauza pose in Barker Common, site of the festival set for Aug. 24 to 25.
The Fredonia Farm Festival will take its usual August spot on the calendar after getting canceled, then reinstated.
The village Board of Trustees officially approved use of Barker Common and nearby streets for the festival, at last week’s meeting. The 56th edition of the event is set for Aug. 24 to 25.
The annual event, Fredonia’s largest festival, was originally run by Festivals Fredonia. However, that outfit canceled it in February. After a community outcry, a committee led by Lauren Boyle and Greg Krauza took over planning. Boyle and Krauza sat down for an interview in Barker Common with the OBSERVER Tuesday.
Past Farm Festivals were open Friday afternoons, but not this year. Krauza said, “I think the primary reason is, as co-chairs with not a lot of background, we carved it down to two days to make it more manageable. Two days are better than none.”
Boyle said, “We got a late start. Everyone else had the chance to organize their festivals over a year. We thought we could really fill over two days and give people what they expect.”
Krauza stated that research data from a consultant showed that Saturday and Sunday are by far the most heavily attended days. “We’ll put Friday back on the table after we see how this year goes,” he said.
The organizing duo is confident that despite the shortened length, the festival will be well-received.
“We really tried to keep those elements that people enjoyed,” Boyle said. “As far as craft vendors we do have a lot of returning vendors … but some from out of the area as well. We were pleasantly surprised to see that.” Similarly, some previous food vendors will return and there will be a few new ones.
“An overwhelming theme Lauren and I have committed to is, bring the farm aspect back to the Farm Fest,” Krauza said. “Our response from farmers at Farmers Markets was, Farm Fest had become a craft fest, not a farm fest. We’re going to do all we can to promote and tie events to our agricultural heritage.”
Among other things, the Farmers Market will more or less merge with the Farm Festival for the weekend. There will be farm to table presentations by cooks in the gazebo.
“They’ll actually shop at the market, then during their live cooking demo, show people how they can get these local ingredients into meals they can make,” Boyle said.
Maggitti Farms plans presentations on home gardening and urban farming. 21 Brix is set to offer a wine talk touching on local grapes. There’s also a petting zoo set for Sunday.
In other news, the Sunday parade is still happening on its usual Temple Street route at 1 p.m. “It looks like we have a pretty robust response,” Krauza said.
He noted that the festival is still welcoming sponsors and individual volunteers. He asked interested parties to email Farmfestivalfredonia@gmail.com.
“There was an outcry in the community, ‘Let’s keep the Farm Fest.’ This is how these people can help keep the Farm Fest,” he said.
The biggest physical change to the festival this year, Krauza continued, is that Day Street will be open to traffic. The music stage will move a few feet to the crosswalk across Church Street near Day. It will be a slightly smaller stage. “That forces us to shift slightly but it’s not bad,” Krauza said.
“There may be some slight variations (to the festival) but nothing that will throw anybody off,” Boyle said.
Boyle and Krauza both sought to thank the nearby churches along Church Street for their support, as well as volunteers who have helped them organize the festival. Krauza thanked Kravitz Tree Service, DFT, and Chautauqua County for stepping up as sponsors. “We didn’t have to go out and hustle that hard,” he said.
The duo specifically wanted to thank volunteers Julie Nelson, Jim Thompson, Dan Siracuse, Diane Ferguson and Mariah Kravitz for their help.