MANCHESTER — Bob Stannard, recently minted chair of the Vermont Blues Society (VBS), will present a “blues picnic” on Saturday, June 20 starting at 2 p.m. at the Manchester Community Library (MCL). The event is designed to raise awareness of the VBS and to help establish a blues scene in southern Vermont.

Stannard, a well-known personality in the Shires, has previously served the community and state as head of the Better Bennington Corporation, chair of the Vermont Arts Council, and as a “citizen’s lobbyist” in Montpelier where he was even honored by Concurrent House Resolution H.C.R. 167 upon retirement which noted that his “gleaming bald head has been a shining presence in the State House’s crowded hallways…” 

For five decades Stannard has been a dedicated student of blues harmonica, been a member of and led many groups and shared the stage with a who’s who of blues icons including playing several dates in B.B. King’s band, until stepping back from performing and retiring altogether from producing gigs five years ago. 

Now Stannard is coming out of retirement to do it one more time. 

What began as a casual picnic and jam with friends has turned into a high-profile show with several of the industry’s heaviest of heavy weights signed on to support Stannard’s initiative.

And it just happens to align with his 75th birthday.

The Vermont Blues Society, whose mission, according to their website, is “​to preserve the heritage of blues music, celebrate blues recording and performance, expand local awareness of the blues music, enhance opportunities for Vermont-based blues musicians, and ensure the future of this uniquely American art form is alive and well in Vermont,” vigorously promotes performances by marquee musicians and maintains a list of active blues jams around the state. 

If you live in southern Vermont and like to play, you’ll have to drive at least to Middlebury if you want to take a few choruses at a jam session.

That’s a problem he wants to solve by promoting some top-shelf blues locally, including on June 20 in Manchester. For Stannard, this concert is a one-time, mission-driven return to the hustle – a responsibility he was happy to put down when he turned 70.

Stannard initially joined the Blues Society board after being asked by friend and former society Chair, Tom Buckley. Six months later, Buckley stepped down and suggested Stannard take over.

“I thought, ‘Why do I feel like I’m in Venus Flytrap territory?’ but said, ‘Ok, I’ll do it for a year and see how it goes,’’’ Stannard recalled. “I told the board, ‘Careful what you wish for because I’m not just going to sit here and have a monthly meeting and talk about what we’re doing next month,’” he said. “I’m a guy that does stuff.”

When a member pitched the idea of organizing a blues picnic like the one at the Society’s annual meeting, Stannard suggested doing something similar in the southern part of the state. After a call to Paige Vignola, Assistant Director and Education & Community Engagement point person at MCL, he had his venue. 

It wasn’t long before film producer and Hammond Organ endorsee, John Fusco, described by Stannard as “an amazing, accomplished cat,” said he’d play at Stannard’s “little blues benefit.” 

Next, Grammy Award nominee and 7-time Blues Music Foundation Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year award winner Anthony Geraci said, “I’m in.” 

Add in members from Stannard’s old band including perhaps Vermont’s top drummer, Jeff Salisbury, Massachusetts “monster singer” Gina Coleman of Misty Blues, and a few other featured masters and the once humble picnic and blues hang became a high-octane event with world-class musicians.

It’s brought back the old knot of nerves. “I was nervous a week or so ago,” he said. “Now I’m scared sh**less. It’s the feeling that caused me to stop doing this five years ago. This could have been a little picnic with a low-key vibe,” said Stannard. “But now the whole thing is going to be a mega-show.”

He’s not complaining too loudly, though, and knows what’s going to happen on the 20th will be memorable. He’s making sure the details are tied down.

“If it were my band and my gig, I wouldn’t care half as much,” he said. “For this one, I felt like the show needed a little more structure.”

After providing time for each guest artist, Stannard is planning a traditional blues jam in the middle of the show complete with a sign-up sheet, “just like any bar in Vermont,” and will wrap up the show by bringing everyone on stage for a few tunes.

Moonwink Burmese Food, owned and run by Stannard’s son Wes and his wife May, will cater the event and Nature’s Market will sell beer and wine. The Coffee Bar in Bennington is also a sponsor.

“I’m trying to raise awareness and money,” Stannard said. “We all felt strongly that we didn’t want to exclude anyone with a ticket price. But we will have donation buckets all over the place. The players are playing for free. All the money we raise is going back to the Vermont Blues Society.”

“Everyone I talk to down here has no idea the Vermont Blues Society even exists,” Stannard said with a chuckle. “Those days are over. That’s a threat and a promise.”

Learn more about membership and programming at the Vermont Blues Society at https://vermontbluessociety.org/ and find out about upcoming events, exhibitions and updates at the Manchester Community Library at https://mclvt.org/.

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WINOOSKI — Muyisa Mutume’s neighborhood grocery store here is always stocked with food and drinks popular in his native Congo. But in recent months, he’s also been selling something else: soccer jerseys.

That’s because, for the first time in more than half a century, Congo’s national men’s soccer team is playing in the FIFA World Cup. The global tournament, hosted this year across 16 cities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, kicks off Thursday and runs through mid-July.

Standing at the counter of M. Square Market, with a stack of red, yellow and blue jerseys in the cabinet in front of him, Mutume said excitement for the tournament has been approaching “crazy” levels throughout Vermont’s Congolese community. 

Congo qualified for this year’s World Cup, which has 48 total teams, with a thrilling overtime win against Jamaica in April. The last time the country made the cut for the competition was 1974, when it would have been labeled on a globe as Zaire.

“Soccer is the main sport in the Congo. Like, in every corner — even small villages — it’s something that brings a lot of folks together,” Mutume said. “So, when there’s a soccer game, people take it to the extreme.”

Vermont is home to some 500 to 700 Congolese families, the majority living in Winooski and other cities and towns in Chittenden County, according to Emmanuel Zia, a coordinator for the mutual aid organization Congolese Community of Vermont. 

Seeing Congo’s team on soccer’s biggest stage is “like Christmas for us,” Mutume said.

‘Very much on the soccer map’

This year’s tournament also comes, in Vermont, at a time when soccer has perhaps never had a bigger fan base. 

That’s in large part due to the success of Vermont Green FC, a semiprofessional club that has been playing in Burlington since 2022. The club, which mostly fields college players on break from the school year, routinely sells out its 2,500-capacity home games at the University of Vermont. Some matches have drawn thousands more fans.

Vermont Green has made global headlines from the start for its explicit support of progressive social causes, including environmental justice and immigrants’ rights. Then, last year, the club’s men’s team had an undefeated season that culminated in winning the national championship of its summertime league, called USL League 2.

The August 2025 win was all the more significant because it came less than a year after the UVM men’s soccer team won its own national championship, in the NCAA’s Division I — the school’s first-ever title in a major team sport. 

“(This) pocket of land in New England is now very much on the soccer map,” declared the global soccer news website Goal.com, writing about Burlington after Vermont Green and UVM’s back-to-back championships.

Vermont Green Football Club fans cheer their team during introductions before the USL League Two national championship against Ballard FC in Burlington, August 2025. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

For Dan Versace, a former collegiate soccer player who lives in South Burlington, “it’s amazing” how Vermont Green has brought soccer fans in the area like himself together in recent years, he said. Versace is a founding member of the Green Mountain Bhoys, the team’s official supporters’ group that he said started as just a casual meetup at a Burlington brewery.

Versace coaches youth soccer and said he’s also noticed, since 2022, how attending Vermont Green games has boosted kids’ knowledge of the sport. Many of his young players now point to Vermont Green players — along with global superstars like Erling Haaland of Norway and France’s Kylian Mbappé — as their favorites, he said. 

At the same time, he’s noticed more youth players schooling their parents on soccer’s sometimes complex rules, rather than the other way around.

“This general awareness of the sport and passion for the sport is huge,” Versace said. “And I think one of the big reasons that’s happening is just how accessible it is in Burlington right now.” 

‘How the sausage is made’

Versace is “obviously” excited for the World Cup to start this week, he said, and plans to watch as many of the games as he can. But he said that he and many other fans he knows see this year’s tournament as “sort of divisive” for reasons that have little to do with the game itself.

FIFA, the global governing body for soccer, has faced widespread criticism for employing what’s known as dynamic pricing to adjust the cost of World Cup tickets for real or perceived demand. The result has been eye-wateringly high ticket prices that have put the tournament out of reach for many fans, and are by far the most expensive in the competition’s history.

Four U.S. state attorneys general have opened legal probes into FIFA’s ticket practices in recent weeks. FIFA has faced several law enforcement investigations before, including over a massive bribery and corruption scheme tied to its decisions to host previous World Cups in Russia and Qatar.

The leadup to this year’s tournament has also been colored by some of the most controversial policies of President Donald Trump’s administration. This World Cup will be the first during which a host country, the U.S., is at war with one of the tournament’s contenders, Iran. 

Trump’s restrictive immigration policies have had an impact, too. At least one referee from Somalia and one member of the Iraqi team’s staff were denied entry at U.S. airports, according to NPR. Meanwhile, dozens of fans, including a group from Morocco, have been denied travel visas despite having tickets for games, NPR reported.

“It’s one of those, you know, ‘Don’t ask how the sausage is made’ questions, right? But you can’t do that anymore,” Versace said. “It’s impossible to be ignorant to a lot of these topics.”

‘It’s already a win’

The high cost of tickets put attending a World Cup match this year out of reach for Mutume, the Winooski grocer. He was aware of at least a small group of Congolese Vermonters planning to travel to watch the country play in the coming weeks.

Congo’s first match of the tournament is June 17, against global powerhouse Portugal. Each country is guaranteed at least three games in the tournament, after which the top finishers from 12 groups of four teams each will advance to a knockout-style bracket.

Mutume said he’s under no illusions that his country will win this year’s World Cup. But lifting the trophy really isn’t the point, he said.

“We’re just happy that they’re there,” Mutume said, smiling. “I mean, it’s already a win for us.”