Mayor's Celebration Aug. 2312:00AM / Saturday, August 19, 2006
 | | Something to cheer about: The Mayor's Downtown celebration is set for Aug. 23. Photo is Drury High School cheerleaders 2005 Downtown Celebration performance. |
North Adams - The city's party of the summer is set to kick off at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 23 along the downtown streets, as the 11th annual of Mayor's Downtown Celebration celebrates the community.
Mayor John Barrett inaugurated the festivities in 1996 to commemorate the completion of a street, sidewalk and lighting beautification project in the city. The initial street party earned an enthusiastic thumbs-up from residents, and has become a summertime downtown tradition.
Main, Eagle, Holden and the northern portion of Ashland Street will be closed to vehicle traffic. Groups, businesses and civic organizations will sponsor sales, contests and giveaways. Live bands will play everything from Dixieland to rock and roll, free for the listening, along with other entertainment.
The festival has always been flavored with local foods and 2006 will not be any different, with two dozen local restaurants and vendors setting up temporary cafes and booths on the streets and sidewalks. The streetscape menu is expected to tantalize with offerings including hot dogs, hamburgers, Burritos, Caesar Salad wraps and Italian Sodas, sausage, pizza, Chinese, Polish and Mexican Fare, complete chicken dinners, sea food, cotton candy, ice cream, smoothies and sno-cones and of course, fried dough.
Musical entertainment includes the regionally renowned Dixie Cats, playing toe-tapping Dixieland tunes at 66 Main St., "Champagne Jam," a Northern Berkshire County favorite combo, at 75 Main St. and the ever-popular Brave Brothers over on 31 Eagle Street.
Elayna Collias, Tom Taglieri and the "Wanna Bees" will stage a 15-person fifties and sixties Rock 'n Roll Revue at 93 Main St. Tom Markland will appear at the corner of Main and Eagle streets, playing solo guitar. Ven Voisey performs at 51 Main St..
Other crowd-pleasers include magic by Atticus, with three separate
shows under the historic Mohawk Theater marquee. The Berkshire County Line Dancers are planning their largest downtown show to date, in front of the Berkshire Plaza. Students from Karen's School of Dance and the Drury High School cheerleaders will be on hand, as well as the Drury High School dance team, all performing at the corner of Holden and Main.
The Berkshire Dance Theater will also perform a routine at 6:30 PM at the east end of Main Street, near the First Baptist Church. Mill City Productions, a community theater troupe, will perform selected shorts on the south side of 102 Main St.. Members of St. John's Episcopal Church will perform songs from the musical "Godspell," accompanied by piano at 62 Main St...
Local Historian Paul W. Marino is planning a special "Main Street
Historical Walk" at 5:00 PM at the west end of Main Street across from the Mayor's Office of Tourism.
There will be a children's area, and a "Fire Safety House" is scheduled to be on site and open. The special safety house is a secure environment that teaches children about fire safety in the home. The North Adams Lodge of Masons, in conjunction with the North Adams Police Department, will offer child fingerprinting and identification.
Children may learn about the basics of tennis on the south side of Main Street.
Sponsorship of entertainment at the Downtown Celebration has been
generously provided by the Adams Cooperative Bank, Greylock Federal
Credit Union, Hoosac Bank, MASS MoCA, MCLA, the North Adams Transcript and Moulton's Spectacle Shoppe. In the event of rain, the Celebration will be rescheduled for Thursday, August 24th.
For information,contact Rod Bunt, Mayor's Office of Tourism, North Adams, 413-664-6180 or tourist@bcn.net |
