Chester Festival, long held on the Green, to move to Legion field

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Approximately three dozen people gathered at Chester’s American Legion on Tuesday evening for a long awaited information session about moving the 2026 Chester Festival on the Green off the Green and surrounding town properties and onto a field next to the American Legion, off Route 103 South.

The plan was first hinted at on Oct. 21 on social media as “BIG news and location change coming for the next year,” with details coming at a meeting in early December. Before that could even happen, however, the posting stirred up a lot of controversy on social media, almost as much for its intrigue as for the suggestion of moving this beloved Chester event away from downtown Chester.

So, after a snow delay last week, this frigid Tuesday was the first time that the general public could get details, ask questions and direct comments to the board of Chester Community Events LLC,  a 501(c)(3) that formed in 2021 to take over the 50-year-old plus festival from the Rotary.

After introducing members of the festival board, chairman Scott Blair told those gathered that there would be a half hour of explaining the planned move followed by the same amount of time for questions and comments. He  recounted how the festival had started as a local crafts fair half a century ago and was run for a long time by the Chester Rotary Club as a fundraiser for its Green Mountain High School scholarship fund. After 2020, and a hiatus due to the Covid pandemic, that group could no longer get enough volunteers to stage the event and the CCE was founded.

Blair said that his group had grown the festival attendance from around 3,000 to 10,000 this past year. But with that success, he said there were problems including traffic congestion and safety issues that prompted them to look at moving to the Legion-owned “Gateway Field,” which is across Route 103 from the high school and to the south of the American Legion.

As other members of the board took the microphone, reading from prepared statements, they said that this would still be the same Chester Festival on the same weekend in September but with room to grow the number of vendors and the number of people attending.

Saying that the primary reason for moving was safety, board member Shannon Parker Laramee spoke about the problems with congestion including interactions between pedestrians and drivers,  J-walking and the safety of visitors walking between the booths that face Main Street. She said on that side of the Green it’s loud and stressful with dust and exhaust odors and wind from traffic.

Among the other safety issues cited was the presence of food vendors on the periphery of the festival. The festival has no control over whether those vendors have the proper licensing. But Parker Laramee said that the state sees all food vendors as the responsibility of the event.

Board member Lee Whiting recounted riding at the back of the organization’s haywagon as it moved back and forth along Main Street. Whiting said that driving at a slow speed to turn around at Sugar Bob’s on the west end of Main Street, he saw frustrated drivers and motorcyclists passing the wagon and giving them the finger.

“We’ve got a lot of issues – this is not an easy decision for the board,” said Whiting. Blair also said that the Green venue has lost about 15 vendor spaces after two new trees on the Green and one next to the town tomb as well as the new town signage.

Turning to the new space, each table at the Legion had a map showing how the event would be laid out in the field. Whiting said that some vendors would be able to have their cars behind their booths and that the group is getting estimates for electrical hookups for food vendors. As for parking, the group said there would be visitor parking on site, at the Legion and at the softball field behind the Stone House Antique Center. Additional parking would be available at Green Mountain High School. However, Whiting said that the Town of Chester would not add a temporary crosswalk, but could set out cones to narrow the road and slow traffic for pedestrians to cross.

Board member Ruthanne Batchelder said the move would free up parking on the Green that weekend for patrons  to come to downtown stores. She added that the event would still promote those businesses — now about a mile away — with such ideas as a “Merchants Row” at the festival.

Possible return of the foliage train

Blair told the audience that his group has been working with Carol Lighthall of Okemo Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce to return the Foliage Train to Chester. He said that if the railroad agrees, a train with four passenger cars would stop at the top of the hill on Legion Drive on Saturday and Sunday to take people on a scenic fall ride.

Organizers also said they would sponsor activities at the Chester Historical Society citing possible Civil War reenactments and programs on the Underground Railroad. CHS President Jon Clark said that he would welcome moving the festival out of downtown because the congestion resulted in difficulties giving tours downtown and use of the Academy Building restrooms.

Attendees question the move

Chester resident Ian Montgomery, who was president of the Rotary when it decided to give up the festival, praised the group’s work, but expressed concern that their intent was just to make the festival bigger and bigger.

“The goal was to do something for the heart of Chester,” said Montgomery. “Abandon the heart of Chester and you could be in any field anywhere in Vermont … we want to walk around Chester and be proud of it” instead of losing  its uniqueness in a field. He was concerned that the festival was getting too large. “I think you are big enough.”

Shop owner Julian Sottovia asked to see a financial statement from the festival to see what money is coming in and where it is going.

Steve Dock, who lives in Chester, said if the problem is safety, traffic control measures, including volunteers, and reducing the number of vendors could  solutions.

Amy Turco of Mount Holly said she does a lot of craft shows and that Bennington had great success with a move similar to what the Chester committee is doing. She asked if the price would change, to which Blair replied that it would not increase for 2026.

Chester Select Board members Lee Gustafson and Arne Jonynas thanked the group for all the work they’ve done to put on the festival. However, Jonynas added that he would support whatever they do, but he was leaning toward keeping it in the center of town. Jonynas also said he wished the group had included public involvement earlier and cautioned about adverse effects of making the change.

Cynthia Prairie, a Chester resident who is publisher of The Chester Telegraph and who has vended at the festival for about 15 years, asked board members what the mission of the organization is. Blair said he didn’t know it but would send it to her. Late on Wednesday, that statement of objectives was sent to Prairie and included:

• to encourage community spirit and pride in our town;
• to actively support the preservation of our town;
• to promote a positive image of the of Chester, VT;
• Actively recruit others to help with this objective;
• To highlight/showcase the agricultural and artistic roots of the Chester Community.

She later asked if the fundraisers for various Green Mountain classes would continue, to which Whiting said there would be space for student booths.

Donna McNeill-Hudkins, who serves on the board of the Whiting Library, said that this would be a loss for their book sale fundraiser, which is separate from the festival but relies on foot traffic for customers. McNeill-Hudkins, who said she has managed large trade shows with multiple venues,  suggested continuing to have vendors on the Green and providing a bus or haywagon to link the sites. This way, she said the festival would not “lose the quality of being on the Green.”

Shop owner Sharon Baker said that, in 15 years on the Common, she has watched the festival go “from nice, to wonderful to amazing,” but now is concerned that the businesses on the Green will lose between $80,000 and $100,000 for that weekend. To help make up for that, she said she is organizing some smaller events on the Green throughout the year.

After about 45 minutes, when all the comments had been made and questions answered, the meeting ended. On the way out, Whiting and Jonynas could be seen standing near Legion Drive looking out over the new home of the Chester Festival.