From the editor: Two super events in Chester and a lesson in lemonade-making

By Cynthia Prairie
©2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC

It was a beautiful fall Saturday morning. The sun was shining and the American Legion’s Gateway Field, carpeted in green grass, was buzzing with activity as vendors set up their booths at the new home of the Chester Festival.

For the past nine months, many of us have been holding our breaths not knowing what to expect at the new venue, about a mile east from its home of 50 years, the Chester Green.  The move was decided by the Chester Community Events Committee, which took over the event in 2021 when the Chester Rotary’s ability to continue managing it faltered.

But many Chester residents complained that they weren’t allowed to offer any input before the final decision was made, which was just “thrust upon them.” This is a community event, after all, many said, and Chester will lose visitors who won’t see what a lovely town it is.

Some also thought that the Committee’s concerns over safety issues were overblown.

Merchants on the Green were especially concerned. Fall Festival weekend had become their best weekend for sales. And the Whiting Library, which is just down the street from the Green, was worried that its huge annual book sale would take a financial hit.

Many festival vendors, on the other hand, had no idea what to expect. Would it be muddy? Would the ground be even? Would our regular customers even show up? Would it attract too many people and be uncomfortably crowded? Would it succeed despite lacking the charm of being on the Chester Green?

As one of the oldest vendors at the festival — (Shameless plug: Fight Scurvy, Drink Lemonade has been vending there for at least 15 years) — I was skeptical. But I had been proved wrong before by Committee co-chairs Scott Blair and Lee Whiting concerning changes to the festival. So I decided not to worry about it, for us at least.

But I was worried about the merchants on the Green. It wasn’t unusual of me to talk to a few merchants after the festival to find out how they did. So when Sharon Baker of Sharon’s on the Common and the Chester Candy Company said that merchants on the Green would lose at least $80,000 on that weekend if the festival moved, I knew she was not exaggerating.

Baker, like Whiting and Blair, is a powerhouse. I’ve watched her business grow and adapt under shifting markets. She’s created her own clothing trends (Sharon’s Shawls — I have three including her first iteration). She cuts back when necessary, then adds new products to capture new audiences.

So it was no surprise that she would create an event for festival weekend that would attract shoppers and hopefully into the businesses on the Green. But she made a point of keeping it to one day — Saturday — and focusing solely on Vermont foods from Vermont producers. The event also allowed Chester Townscape, the Chester Historical Society, the Whiting Library and the Chester Conservation Committee to continue to hold their sales and tours for a decent-sized crowd.

There were a few critics of both events — the land of Social Media can be a cesspool of rudeness.

But both events were successful and, from what we gathered in talking to our customers at the festival, many were taking the time to enjoy both.

The Chester Festival was filled with vendors, including the traditional fund-raisers for the Chester Fire Department and the various grades at Green Mountain, two stages were set up for various acts and I even got to see several that I had not been able to in years past. A small motorized train, a la Thomas the Tank Engine, tooted around the grounds.

And Baker’s event, Chester Celebrates Vermont Special Foods, filled the Green with people visiting about 20 vendors under colorful tents serving up all types of foods to eat there or take away. Wagon rides, thanks to Peter Hudkins and Donna McNeill-Hudkins, ferried visitors around the area — and helped to benefit Chester Townscape’s work beautifying the town. 

We hope both events come back strong next year, and find a way to work together, even in some small way. They proved that there is no need for one umbrella organization to run all events and that “competing” events and vendors can actually feed into and complement one another.

Both events attracted a lot of very happy visitors: The Events Committee continues to build on a successful event that was started more than 50 years ago; And Sharon Baker, well, she did something we at Fight Scurvy have always advocated: Making Lemonade out of Lemons.