The Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival 2021

 

The Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival 2021 took place this week-end. It was a beautiful day and lots of people turned out on Saturday morning. The Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival has been a yearly event in Norwich since 1994 and takes place the first week-end after Labor Day. It gives people that one last event to look forward to before fall. It is the event for local, and some not so local, artists. There are many different forms of art and it was fun looking at it all. You can purchase from the various artists who have it displayed in their booths which are in both parks, East Park and West Park. The parks are across Broad Street (Rt. 12) from each other in the center of downtown Norwich, NY. The art is judged and awards given.

There was plenty of entertainment through out the day. Such as music, puppet shows, juggler acts, art projects for children to take part in and much more. My street was blocked off so the whole front lawn of my building was used for entertainment. The juggler, Jason Tardy, was performing his show in front of our half of the building. The puppet theater and children's art project tent was in front of the other half where the Chenango Art Council has their offices.  

East and West parks are directly across the street from each other in downtown Norwich. South and North Broad Streets did not have to be closed down. Just the street I live on. Traffic was respectful of people crossing the streets and our crosswalks are clearly marked. There was live music all day on both sides of the street. The music was really good and the chairs around the stages was filled most of the day. I am fortunate to have a chair wherever I go since I was using "Jazzy" my mobility chair. 

The food court was very popular with lines for everything. It smelled and looked good. We did not buy anything to eat from those instead choosing to buy from the local establishments. We bought pizza from Nina's, the Italian restaurant. In the morning we bought lattes from Deja Brew, the coffee shop around the corner. They had a long line to get inside too but we managed to get there at the beginning of the line. It was very good and we enjoyed it.

I was on my mobility chair and Sonny on his scooter and was able to get through to see everything with no problem. Most of the street corners in Norwich have ramps built into them so they are easy to use for wheelchairs and mobility vehicles. The parks have cement sidewalks and that is a big help for me. I kept getting stuck in the grass! My mobility chair, "Jazzy" is larger than the scooters and heavier with 4 small wheels and 2 large ones. 

I had never seen this many people in Norwich since I moved here in 2018. It was a friendly crowd and everyone got along with no trouble that I saw. I only went on Saturday but Sunday had less people and seemed quieter. Norwich has a lot of public parking areas with the addition of the large parking lot at the county office building which was just across the street from West Park. They also had a number of port-a-potties available off to the side of the court house. 

There were many different types of artists at Colorscape selling their art work. Not just paintings and prints. The baskets on display were absolutely stunning! I love baskets but had to make myself stay away from them. I do not want to buy more things for my apartment. I have been getting rid of a lot of stuff so have to stick to that. I had fun browsing though.

One of my friends is a sunflower fanatic and when I saw the sunflowers painted on a few different pieces in this one booth I had to grab a picture for her. I will be writing another post about Colorscape soon as I took a lot of pictures. One artist was doing sculptures with his chainsaw.  I saw a lot of handmade jewelry and many other items that I can't name them all here. It looked like people were buying too. I hope these artists did well at Colorscape. 

There were many dogs enjoying the day also. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to share a little bit of it with my readers. 

Copyright © 2021 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2021  Kathleen G. Lupole

25th Annual Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival

Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival in Norwich, NY

The city of Norwich, NY, where I moved to in May of 2018, is not a big city by any means. It has a population of 6,644 people according to the 2019 estimated United States Decennial census. That makes it the 133rd largest city in the state of New York. That is IF those statistics are correct on this day. Whatever it is, Norwich (NY) is not a big city, but large enough for me. I would not want to live in a city any bigger than this. It was a big change for me, moving from the country to the city life. Now I have lived in much larger cities and in fact, lived in St. Petersburg, FL, which was a beautiful city. For me it was too big. Being beautiful and being safe were two different things. Regardless, this is where I live now.

East Main & Broad Street Intersection

This week-end the 25th Annual Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival took place. I don't really know that much about it and the history of it. It was a fun week-end for me. Artists came from all over and I believe they were judged for their various art pieces and projects. It was very impressive! The streets were closed at the main intersection of Norwich (NY). East Park and West Park are two parks facing each other with the main street, Broad St. (Route 12) dividing them. Both parks were full of tents that were actually booths for the artists so they could sell their items. Such beautiful things for sale! Best thing is that people were buying! It looked to me like it was a good turnout. Cars were parked everywhere! Very crowded.

The Food Booths

The corner of my street was set up with all the food trucks. All kinds of foods were for sale. It smelled good. There was a lot of foods I had never seen sold at these type of things. I guess it is what I would call "fair foods" but I was able to hold off on buying any and waited till I got home to eat. Not real easy to eat a dish of something sitting on Jazzy. The tent with tables for eating were on the grass and hard for me to get to. There were all kinds of barbecue foods, such as pulled pork and chicken, tacos, macaroni and cheese.........yes, macaroni and cheese! I was surprised to see that being sold at a couple different food vendors.

Nate Gross & The Americana Strings

They had two stages set up with music playing most of the day. On Saturday, I hurried to get to East Park to see Nate Gross & The Americana Strings, our local talent from Oxford, NY. He was playing at 10:00 in the morning. I am so glad I got there in time to see him. He was really good! I stayed to listen to him till he was done. I met him some years back when he had a school in Oxford teaching kids to play the guitar. He bought some guitar strings from me back then. That was when I used to sell strings online. He now has a drum school in the other part of my building. It is fun watching him progress in his career and getting the recognition he deserves. If you ever get the chance to hear him play somewhere, go!

Sonny truckin' up the street on his Spitfire scooter!

Saturday I went to Colorscape by myself using Jazzy, my mobility chair. I felt free and independent. Instead of not seeing the whole thing, I was able to go to everything. Without Jazzy, I might have made it across the street with my walker but not for long or very far. Sunday, Sonny, my BF came over and he used his scooter, Spitfire, to go with me to Colorscape. It was a lot more fun with him! We felt like a couple of teenagers out and about. Days like that are good memories. Then we went to the grocery store and came home to fix supper. Had such a great day!

Copyright © 2019 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2019  Kathleen G. Lupole