Vermont

Here are 10 summer festivals in Vermont to attend this year

Published

9 months ago

June 5, 2025

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Here are 10 summer festivals in Vermont to attend this year

Pitchfork Music Festival Will Not Return To Chicago In 2025

After 19 years, the Pitchfork Music Festival has announced it will not return to Chicago in 2025.

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Looking forward to spending time outdoors at a festival or fair this summer?

Luckily, Vermont has plenty of exciting festivals lined up to celebrate the season all summer long, from June through September. From food festivals to outdoor concerts to historical agricultural fairs, the state is sure to have the perfect festival for the whole family to enjoy.

Here are 10 festivals in Vermont to attend this summer.

Vermont State Fair

The Vermont State Fair, Vermont’s oldest agricultural fair, will return this summer for the 179th time. Hosted by the Rutland Agricultural Society, this five-day event will include live entertainment, carnival rides and food trucks, as well as agricultural demonstrations like animal races or tractor shows.

Hours and ticket information for the 2025 Vermont State Fair will follow in the coming weeks.

When: Tuesday, Aug. 12 through Saturday, Aug. 16

Where: 175 S Main St., Rutland

Do Good Fest

Back in Montpelier this July is Do Good Fest, a charity music festival that benefits the Vermont Foodbank. This year, Do Good’s headliner is Grammy award-winning band The Fray, who will be joined by the Plain White T’s and Sammy Rae & The Friends.

Along with the big concert, this festival will also have two dozen food trucks, a beer garden, a donation drive and a fireworks show. General admission to Do Good Fest costs just $5, but all size donations are accepted. Children ages five and under enter for free.

When: Saturday, July 12 from 2-9 p.m.

Where: National Life Group, 1 National Life Dr., Montpelier

Quechee Hot Air Balloon Festival

Head over to the 45th annual Quechee Hot Air Balloon Festival for a dreamy weekend of hot air balloon rides through the scenic Upper Valley sky. As the longest-running hot air balloon festival in New England, this event also features live music, a kids zone and over 50 artisan vendors of local foods and goods.

Tickets, which cost $25 for adults or $5 for children, include admission for the whole weekend, so guests may come and go throughout the three-day festival. Balloon rides are sold separately.

When: Friday, June 20 through Sunday, June 22. Hours are 3-8 p.m. on Friday, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Where: Quechee Green Park, 70 Village Green, Quechee

Vermont Blueberry Festival

Nothing says summer like fresh blueberries, and Southern Vermont’s Deerfield Valley is celebrating the popular fruit with a 10-day festival.

The area-wide festival will feature various blueberry-themed events, including a blueberry parade, a blueberry kids fair, a blueberry craft fair, a blueberry parade, blueberry planting classes, a blueberry dessert competition and a blueberry pie eating contest. Additionally, the festival will be accompanied by lots of live music, farmers markets and special blueberry-infused creations from local restaurants and bars, including blueberry chicken tacos, blueberry pancakes and blueberry lemon martinis.

While most of the events for the blueberry festival are free, some may have individual costs. A full schedule with details can be found online.

When: Friday, July 25 through Sunday, Aug. 3.

Where: Various locations in Deerfield Valley

Champlain Valley Fair

Close out summer at the 103rd Champlain Valley Fair, coming to Essex Junction at the end of August. The iconic fair has plenty of agricultural demonstrations and competitions, cooking competitions, carnival rides and games, a demolition derby and more.

The ten-day fair also features a different entertainment act each night, including Lil Jon, Dustin Lynch and Gabriel Iglesias this year.

Tickets are now available online, with single-day admission starting at $12 for adults and $6 for children. Concerts and rides are sold separately.

When: Friday, Aug. 22 through Sunday, August 31. Gates open at noon on weekdays and 10 a.m. on weekends.

Where: 105 Pearl St., Essex Junction

Vermont Brewers Festival

Established in 1991, the Vermont Brewers Festival is a popular two-day craft beer event located on the picturesque shores of Lake Champlain. While sipping on beer from over 30 craft breweries, guests can shop from local food and goods vendors, enjoy live music and play lawn games like giant beer pong.

Tickets cost $60 in advance or $65 day-of. Each ticket includes 15 tabs to use as drink tickets, with five extra tickets available for purchase inside. Designated driver tickets are also available for $22 on-site only.

When: Friday, July 18 from 5:30-9:30 p.m. and Saturday, July 19 from noon to 4 p.m. or 5:30-9:30 p.m.

Where: Waterfront Park, 10 College St., Burlington

Art in the Park

Each summer, the Chaffee Art Center hosts an Art in the Park Festival showcasing fine art, photography and crafts from local artists. The free festival also includes specialty foods, children’s activities, live music and demonstrations of artworks in progress.

When: Saturday, Aug. 9 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 10 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Main Street Park, 5 S Main St., Rutland

Burlington Wine & Food Festival

Burlington is celebrating summer with the perfect festival for wine lovers – a day of wine tasting and food sampling on the shores of Lake Champlain. The festival will feature wines from all over the world, including Italy, Spain, France and right here in Vermont, as well as artisan cheeses, meats and chocolates.

Admission costs $80 per guest for advance tickets or $95 on the day of the event. The price of the ticket includes all food sampling, wine tasting and on-site presentations.

When: Saturday, June 21 from 12:30-3:30 p.m. or 5-8 p.m.

Where: Hula Lakeside, 50 Lakeside Ave., Burlington

Best of Vermont Summer Festival

Back for a fifth year, the Best of Vermont Summer Festival is a newer festival that celebrates summer with live music, craft beverages, artisan products, specialty foods, antique tractors and kids activities. Ticket and scheduling information for this fair will be published online when made available.

When: Saturday, Aug. 23 and Sunday, Aug. 24 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Okemo Field at Route 103 and Bixby Road, Ludlow

Burlington Discover Jazz Festival

In early June, jazz music will fill the streets of downtown Burlington for the 42nd Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. Musical acts will range in everything from local high school bands to a closing night tribute to Alice Coltrane, one of the most influential women in jazz.

Ticket prices vary depending on the specific show. All tickets can be bought online.

When: Wednesday, June 4 through Sunday, June 8

Where: Various locations in downtown Burlington

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Vermont

Vermont Air National Guard joins Iran campaign – The Boston Globe

Published

10 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Vermont Air National Guard joins Iran campaign – The Boston Globe

On a typical day, some of the 20 stealth fighter jets based in South Burlington, Vt., take off from tiny Burlington International Airport for training runs near the northern border. In recent months, they’ve flown much farther afield.

The Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing was deployed in December to the Caribbean, where it took part in the US campaign to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Shortly thereafter, the squadron joined a military buildup in and around the Middle East to prepare for US and Israeli airstrikes against Iran.

Though both deployments had been widely reported, the military remained mum about the whereabouts of Vermont’s F-35A Lightning II jets. Even Governor Phil Scott, technically the commander of the Vermont Guard, said he only knew what he’d read in the news, given that US military leaders were directing the missions.

On Monday, General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed the deployments at a Pentagon press conference about the war on Iran. Caine praised National Guard members from Vermont, Wisconsin, and elsewhere.

“In the case of the Vermont Air National Guard and the 158th Fighter Wing, they were mobilized for Operation Absolute Resolve,” Caine said, referring to the Venezuela campaign. “And then were tasked to take their F-35As across the Atlantic instead of going home, to be prepared to support this operation” in the Middle East.

Much remains unknown about the Vermont Guard’s recent missions, including the precise role they played in Venezuela and Iran, where the jets are currently based, and how long they’ll remain.

The Guard did not immediately respond to requests for comment., Its recently elected leader, General Henry “Hank” Harder, said in a statement that the force was “proud of the dedicated and professional service of our Airmen” and pledged to support their families in the meantime.

“We will continue to carry out our commitment to these Vermont Service Members until, and long after, they return from this mission,” Harder said.

Vermont’s three-member congressional delegation, meanwhile, has praised Vermont Guard members for their service in Venezuela but has criticized President Trump’s campaigns there and in Iran, particularly absent congressional authorization.

“The people of our country, no matter what their political persuasion, do not want endless war,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent, echoing similar remarks from Senator Peter Welch and Representative Becca Balint, both Democrats. “We must not allow Trump to force us into another senseless war. No war with Iran.”

Paul Heintz can be reached at paul.heintz@globe.com. Follow him on X @paulheintz.

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In Vermont, small town meetings grapple with debate on big issues

Published

22 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

In Vermont, small town meetings grapple with debate on big issues

Tuesday is town meeting day in Vermont. Municipalities in New England and elsewhere are increasingly grappling with major national and international issues at the local level.

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/Getty Images

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JOSEPH PREZIOSO/Getty Images

If you haven’t lived in certain New England towns, it can be hard to fathom their centuries-old direct democracy-style Town Meetings, where everyday residents vote on mundane town business such as funding for schools, snow plows and road repairs.

These days, voters are also being asked to weigh in on national and international issues, for example, demanding the de-funding of ICE, and condemning “the unprovoked attack and start of an illegal and immoral war against Iran.” It’s all fueling a separate – and fierce– debate on what towns ought to be debating.

“When you have people sleepwalking into an authoritarian regime, it’s up to us to sound the alarm,” insists Dan Dewalt, an activist in Newfane, Vermont, one of several communities where residents scrambled to draft a resolution against the Iran war in time for their annual Town Meeting on Tuesday.

Local resolutions are a uniquely effective tactic, activists and experts say, and they’re being used increasingly around New England and beyond, especially as national politics have become so polarized.

“People feel isolated, helpless and hopeless. And when you hear about other people who are just like you taking a stand and representing something that you believe, that gives you not only hope, but it gives you power,” said Dewalt.

Several other Vermont towns will be considering resolutions Tuesday calling for the removal of the president and vice president “for crimes against the U.S. Constitution,” while many others will vote on a pledge to ” to end all support of Israel’s apartheid policies, settler colonialism, and military occupation and aggression.”

A similar divestment resolution passed 46 -15 in Newfane last year, following hours of heated argument over the plight of Palestinians, the security of Israelis, the “inflammatory” language of the resolution – and whether such problems half-a-world away even belong on the agenda of the tiny town of just about 1,650.

“It’s a Town Meeting for town issues,” Newfane resident Walter Hagadorn declared at a recent Select Board meeting, where residents pressed board members to block any future resolutions not directly related to town business.

“You shouldn’t be subject to hours and hours of people virtue signaling” and trying to “hijack Town Meeting,” Hagadorn said.

Others agreed, suggesting activists host a debate on their issues at another time and place, or stage a rally or protest instead.

But Select Board member Katy Johnson-Aplin pushed back, saying that would not have the same impact.

“It doesn’t work the same way,” Johnson-Aplin said. It’s only when the issue is formally taken up at a Town Meeting that “it goes in the newspaper and it’s recorded that the town of Newfane has agreed to have this conversation.”

University of Pennsylvania political science professor Daniel Hopkins has been watching the growing movement of local communities taking a stand on issues far beyond town lines.

“This is a trend we’re seeing increasingly across the 50 states and in a variety of ways but I think it has taken on a new and potentially more concerning edge,” Hopkins said. “I worry that we are in an attention-grabbing, sensation-rewarding media environment in which the kinds of issues that engage us at a national level may further polarize states and localities and make it harder for them to build meaningful coalitions on other issues.”

Indeed, in Newfane, the resolution regarding Israel became so divisive that some residents decided not to even come to last year’s Town Meeting, according to Select Board vice-chair Marion Dowling.

In Burlington, where a similar resolution was proposed, City Council President Ben Traverse says things got so heated, he and his family were getting harassing phone calls and even death threats. Burlington city councilors voted in January to block the question from going to a popular vote.Vermont has a history of “big issue” resolutions, from the push for a Nuclear Arms Freeze in the 1980’s, to calls to ban genetically modified foods in 2003. Dewalt, the Newfane activist, was behind several of them, including calls to impeach then-president George W. Bush in 2006, which got him invited to talk about it on network TV shows, and quoted in The New York Times.

“I can guarantee you if I stood up on my soap box and made a declaration of the exact same wording, I wouldn’t have had anybody asking me questions about it, he said. “We’re not pie-in-the-sky here about the power of our Newfane Town Meetings, but our actions have consistently had an impact.”

But opponents say activists overstate the impact of their resolutions, and their victory. They say it’s disingenuous, for example, to claim the town of Newfane supported the resolution against Israel, when the winning majority of 46 people was less than 3% of town residents.

“I feel like they’re using the town as a vehicle for their personal messages and that bothers me,” says Newfane resident Cris White. “It’s so junior high.”

Traverse, the Burlington City Council president, also takes issue with what he calls the “inflammatory” language of that resolution.

“The question, as presented, approaches this issue in a one-sided and leading way,” Traverse says.

In Vermont, any registered voter can get a resolution on the Town Meeting agenda by collecting signatures from 5% of their town’s voters. While elected city or town officials have the authority to allow or block the resolution, there is no process in place to vet or edit language.

Traverse says it would behoove city leaders and voters to require an official review to ensure that language is fair and neutral, just as many states do with ballot questions. Traverse says he’s not opposed to contentious, big issue resolutions being put to local voters, but the language must be clear and even-handed.

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Vermont

Vermont high school playoff scores, results, stats for Monday, March 2

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Vermont high school playoff scores, results, stats for Monday, March 2

The 2025-2026 Vermont high school winter season has begun. See below for scores, schedules and game details (statistical leaders, game notes) from basketball, hockey, gymnastics, wrestling, Nordic/Alpine skiing and other winter sports.

TO REPORT SCORES

Coaches or team representatives are asked to report results ASAP after games by emailing sports@burlingtonfreepress.com. Please submit with a name/contact number.

▶ Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5.

▶ Contact Judith Altneu at JAltneu@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.