Village To Become Garlic Town USA
On Saturday, September 5, Bennington, Vermont will become “Garlic Town, USA” for one day in celebration of all things garlic and agriculture!
Bennington has become world-renowned for its annual Garlic and Herb Festival held every year on Labor Day weekend. Last year, the festival saw crowds of over 16,000 patrons and 200 garlic-themed vendors. The Garlic and Herb Festival has been recognized as one of the top 10 garlic festivals in the world, featured in Yankee Magazine and recently was awarded Vermont’s Time-Honored Top 10 Fall Event. Due to the COVID pandemic and Vermont restrictions on festivals, the 25th annual “Garlicfest,” as the event has been affectionately known as, was canceled in early summer.
“Garlicfest is an iconic event in Bennington and all of Vermont,” says Matt Harrington, executive director of the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce which produces the festival. “It is a mixture of community building and economic growth as many of our hotels, restaurants and merchants benefit from the large event and large crowds. As soon as we decided to cancel the festival based on the Governor’s restrictions, we went to work thinking about what we could do to at least celebrate the idea of garlic, agriculture and our community of Bennington.”
What developed was the idea of “Garlic Town, USA.” In coordination with the Town of Bennington and the Better Bennington Corporation, Bennington’s downtown program, Garlic Town, USA will celebrate farmers, agriculture, and the spirit of Garlic Fest throughout downtown Bennington. On the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, Bennington’s downtown will feature pockets of original Garlicfest vendors, or what the committee is calling “Cloves.” Each Clove spot will have 2-3 garlic and produce vendors for people to visit.
“What we heard from many of our Garlicfest vendors, once we canceled the festival, was their concern about what they were going to do with all the produce they had been growing for the festival,” says Harrington. “Working with the Town and BBC, we had the idea of creating additional merchant space throughout downtown for the vendors to sell their produce. Additionally, we heard from many patrons of the festival that they ‘always’ get their yearly garlic from the festival. This now gives those patrons an ability to see their favorite vendors and purchase garlic and other produce.”
“We’ve created ‘clove’ pockets of vendors throughout downtown,” adds John Shannahan, director of the Better Bennington Corporation. “This will be a great opportunity for us to increase the merchant footprint downtown for a day and encourage residents to come downtown to shop both the garlic vendors and our small shops as well.”
Clove locations include Clove A (Downtown Visitor’s Center at 215 South Street and the “Four Corners” of South, North and Main Street), Clove B (“4 Corners” of South, North and Main Street starting at the iconic clock to Silver Street), Clove C (Silver Street to Ramunto’s Pizza at 519 Main Street), Clove D (Depot Street Lot to The Dutchman’s Tavern at 135 Depot Street), and Clove E (Bennington Farmers’ Market on River Street).
As far as health and safety, the Garlic Town, USA committee has been working with officials at the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in preparation for this event. “We are trying to provide social distanced fun and community building, while monitoring the COVID pandemic,” states Harrington. “At every step of this new event, COVID was top of the mind. The committee leaders around the table were extremely sensitive about how to do this fun event while the COVID pandemic still exists. All volunteers and committee leaders will be in full PPE day of. We will have volunteers at every clove and public gathering spot armed with PPE for patrons, hand sanitizer and to help encourage people to remain socially distant from one another. We also have been working with Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dobson and his staff at SVMC to ensure a safe and healthy event.”
Leading up to the week, area restaurants and dining establishments will be featuring various garlic-themed dishes for patrons at a special Garlic Restaurant Week in celebration of garlic and harvest produce. See the chamber’s website for participating restaurants and their specials.
A map of all the cloves and various events throughout downtown will be featured on a handout provided at Bennington.com/GarlicTown and also available at the various Clove locations. Patrons are encouraged to pick up a map and try to get to every Clove throughout the day. At each Clove, a volunteer will stamp the map. If patrons collect all stamped locations on their map and drop it off at the BBC throughout the week after the festival, patrons will be entered to win another gift basket from downtown merchants.