Manchester Music Festival’s 52nd Season

July 7 to September 6

Hi, Friends! I’m continuing to enjoy the arrival of spring and all it brings to us, including the season announcements pouring in from our local and regional cultural institutions. Every time I receive one, I think about how lucky we are to live in a place that values and supports the visual and performing arts.

The Manchester Music Festival has an incredible line-up for us this summer with an expanded season inspired by the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and all the celebratory events in the area that go with it. 

MMF’s 52nd season opens with a free Community Kick-off Party on July 7 at Southern Vermont Arts Center’s Yester House Patio, with catering by curATE Café and featuring a performance by folk ensemble Grand Picnic. To read all about their expanded season, click here.

Photos by Patrick McCormack, courtesy of MMF

Manchester, VT | April 18, 6pm

Join writers of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children's literature from all across Vermont for conversation and a sweet treat at the Northshire Bookstore as they talk about inspiration, writing process, the state of literature today, and how they wrote their award-winning books. The participating finalists are: Tyler Alexander - If I Can Get Home This Fall; Chard deNiord - Westminster West; Kristin Dykstra - Dissonance; Sasha Hom - Sidework; Jeff McRae - The Kingdom Where No One Dies; and Aaron Starmer - Night Swimming. The Vermont Book Awards, created in 2015, are annual prizes for outstanding literature by Vermont authors. They are awarded through a partnership between Vermont Humanities and the Vermont Department of Libraries. For more, visit here.

North Bennington, VT | Registration opens April 17

Vermont Arts Exchange has announced its 2026 Summer Camps! They are offering several camps this summer for kids aged 8 to 12 years old, all taking place Monday-Friday: Wildwood Camp with Max Perry from July 20-24 (10am to 4pm); Camp Danger with Matthew Perry from July 27-31 (10am to 4pm); Clay, Draw, and Sculpture Camp with Madalyn Olson & Lee Williams from August 3-7 (9am to 3pm); and Cute Camp with Madalyn Olson & Rhonda Ratray from August 10-14 (9am to 3pm). Camps fill up fast, so mark your calendars and register early here. 

Bennington, VT 

The Award Winners, photo courtesy of BCHH

Bennington County Habitat for Humanity (BCHH) hosted its annual Model Home Competition on March 28 at Hildene’s Lincoln Hall. This year’s theme, “Living Together: Multigenerational Design,” challenged students to rethink how homes serve families. The event invites students to design and build scale model homes, which are then judged by local professionals and/or voted on by the public. Participants present their work, explain their design choices, and engage directly with attendees throughout the day. The event raised over $17,000 to support Habitat’s affordable housing work. Award Winners: First Place - Halle Ward; Second Place - Callahan Marquis; Third Place- Phoebe Bingham; Community Choice Award - Jackson Meurs; Strongest Design Award - Jordan Chapin; Artistic Creativity Award - Emma Graf, Sophia LeVitre, & Eleanor Zimmerman; Sustainability Award - Knox Sirjane; Habitat Spirit Award- Emjay Figueroa; and Resourceful Design Award - Isla Combs. Congratulations to all! For more, visit here.

Manchester, VT | April 17 - April 26

Earth Matters, the Northshire environmental group, along with other local groups, has organized a series of community events taking place April 17 through 26. The lineup includes everything from jazz concerts to workshops to rallies. An Earth Day rally will take place at the Manchester Roundabout on April 22 from 12pm to 1pm, followed by a concert/dance at the Paradigm (230 Natural Form Way) from 6pm to 8:30pm featuring Avi Salloway and Friends. These events offer a range of ways for community members to connect, learn, and take part in local environmental efforts. For more info, visit here.

Rutland, VT | Tickets on Sale Now: October 28, 7:30pm

The Price Is Right Live^™ returns with a celebrity host, classic games, and iconic sets to The Paramount Theatre! America’s most beloved game show experience is hitting the road – The Price Is Right Live^™ is making its way across the country with a brand-new, high-energy live stage show hosted by a celebrity host full of charisma, laughs, and big personality. Fans can step into the nostalgia of their childhood and see the legendary sets they grew up watching – The Big Wheel^™, Plinko^™, Cliffhangers™, and the fabulous Showcase. The excitement, the prizes, the moments you remember – now you can experience them up close and in person! Randomly selected contestants will have the chance to win appliances, dream vacations, electronics, even a brand-new car, while lucky audience members can score prizes without ever leaving their seat. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at the Heritage Family Credit Union Online Box Office here or in person at the Box Office. 

Danby, VT | April 18, 8am to 10am

Join Tim Duclos, Conservation Ecologist with Audubon Vermont, and Shterna Gordon, Natural Science major at VTSU-Castleton, for a guided walk at the Smokey House Center. You will visit a pine plantation stewarded in 2014 using practices designed to benefit birds, showcasing how active forest management can mimic natural processes to create better bird habitat. Along the way, participants will explore the birds and habitats on the property, learn practical strategies for habitat stewardship, and see Audubon-endorsed forestry practices in action – relevant for landowners managing their own forests or anybody interested in how forest conservation supports bird populations. More info here. 

Bennington, VT | TONIGHT: April 15, 7pm to 10pm

Bennington College Carriage Barn Music Series and Vermont Arts Exchange will host a joint Concert and Dance Party to benefit the Bennington County Multicultural Community Center at the Greenwall Auditorium at Bennington College. The event will feature a concert and dance party with Sal Mamudoski and his Americano Band bringing the best in Balkan Romani music. The event will also include food for sale prepared by members of the local refugee community. The Americano Band debuted in 2025, highlighting both new and traditional music of the Balkans and Turkey. The group features younger-generation Balkan Romani musicians based in New York City and performs Romani and regional folk music from North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Greece, Turkey, and neighboring regions. Tickets are $20 and available here. Kids enter for free, or a suggested donation of $5 is appreciated. Bennington students enter for free with a valid ID. 

Ludlow, VT | May 16, 12pm to 8pm

The Phoenix, the National 1M member sober community, is hosting its 3rd Annual Music on the Mountain festival, a substance-free music and arts festival benefiting the Divided Sky Foundation, a Ludlow, VT-based recovery center co-founded by the Grammy-nominated frontman and guitarist of the legendary band Phish, Trey Anastasio, at the Jackson Gore Village on Okemo Mountain. This year’s event will feature family-friendly activities celebrating recovery, with local arts vendors, food trucks, and the splendor of Vermont’s Green Mountains. The day will culminate with a one-of-a-kind super jam, “BIG Weekend All-Stars,” featuring Eggy, LaMP, Scott Metzger (of JRAD), and Vermont’s own Russ Lawton and Ray Paczkowski (of Trey Anastasio Band and Soule Monde). New this year is 2ŁØT, blending electronic production, jazz fusion, and high-energy improvisation, plus a special appearance by The Trombone Shorty Foundation Band, which brings a dynamic ensemble of emerging New Orleans musicians to the stage. More here!

Dorset, VT

Dorset Theatre Festival (DTF) has announced that film, television, and stage stars Katie Lowes and Adam Shapiro have joined the cast of the upcoming New England premiere of Advice by Brent Askari, part of Dorset’s 49th Main Stage Summer Season playing July 31 to August 15. Additionally, the Festival has announced that Broadway star Desi Oakley will headline the annual fundraising gala, the fifth annual Dance Party Ball, to be held at the Old Gray Barn on July 25. Lowes and Shapiro will also be special guests at the event, along with other guests of honor and artists involved in the 2026 season. The previously announced season also includes Deceived, a chilling new adaptation of the classic thriller Gaslight, by Johnna Wright & Patty Jamieson (June 19 – July 4); The Understudy by Theresa Rebeck (July 10 – July 18); and Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan (August 21 – September 5). All performances will take place at the historic Dorset Playhouse. For more, visit here.

Katie Lowes, Adam Shapiro, and Desi Oakley

Middlebury, VT | April 24 to May 3

The Middlebury Community Players will present the musical comedy sensation Nunsense, by Dan Goggin, at Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater. The show features five good-hearted, well-intentioned female characters who just happen to be nuns! When 52 sisters are accidentally poisoned by the convent’s cook, five of the remaining nuns of the Little Sisters of Hoboken put on a musical revue to raise money for the funerals of four still-unburied sisters. Highlighting their “secret talents” from their pre-convent lives, they sing, dance, and entertain their way through a series of vaudeville-like numbers, often with great comic effect! The musical is directed by Peter Kristoph with music direction by Annette Franklin and choreography by Kendra Gratton. The original production of Nunsense opened on December 12, 1985, and ran for 3,672 performances over the next ten years, becoming the second-longest-running Off-Broadway play
in history. To reserve tickets, visit here or call the THT box office at
802-382-9222.