Newtown Arts Festival Is Gearing Up

By Steve Bonanno

On September 15, close to two years of hard work by the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission (NCAC) will come together in the form of the Newtown Arts Festival.

“The Arts Festival has not happened for over three decades,” said NCAC Commissioner Sharon L. Cohen, “but we’re bringing it back. And we’re doing an awful lot for the first year.”

The Newtown Arts Festival will take place at Fairfield Hills on September 15 and 16, from 9 am to 6 pm each day. Admission is $5 and children under 12 will get in for free. Tents will be set up so the festival will take place rain or shine.

There will be live musical performances by groups such as String Fingers, Flag Pole Radio Café, Boplicity, Smokebomb Mondays, The Danbury Trombone Outfit, and Standard and Blue. There will also be musical performances by artists Peter Ferreira, Brett Boles, Martin Ear, and Aurora Marin. The Newtowner magazine is set to hold a variety comedy show that incorporates the audience, and acclaimed poet Dick Allen will also be there to announce the winner of Newtown’s poetry contest.

There will also be booths with workshops and demonstrations, which will include arts and crafts workshops for both adults and kids, as well as dance workshops that teach dances ranging from Irish dancing to Funk-Jazz.

Vendors will be selling food and art of a wide variety, and the farmers market will be there with a large assortment of produce.

“The whole event was kicked off two years ago with an art contest,” said NCAC Chairman Donna Mangiafico. “The winner of the contest was Tracy Van Buskirk, who did a linoleum block print of Ram Pasture, which we have made the logo of the festival.”

A subcommittee was created to organize the festival, with Jennifer Johnston, Donna Mangiafico, and Paul Mangiafico named as event chairs are. Other members of the subcommittee are Ben Spragg, Rob Kaiser, Donna Monteleone Randle, Burt DeMarche, Fran Pennarola, Robert Rabinowitz, Sharon Cohen, Terry Sagedy, George Caracciolo, Stacey Olszewski, Mark Coleman, and Jennifer Rogers.

Ms Cohen said the NCAC is also selling greeting cards with artwork of the runners-up from the past poster contest. Each set of the cards has a reproduction of the artwork created by a Newtown Middle School student.

At the event, NCAC will also have a tent where they will sell promotional merchandise for the festival, including the greeting cards.

Newtown residents and businesses are also encouraged, according to Ms Cohen, to sponsor the event by putting their name on a banner that will be displayed at the festival. The charge for this is $25 for a resident and $100 for a business. All the proceeds from the event will benefit furthering arts in Newtown, according to Ms Cohen.

Newtown Savings Bank, Newtown Center of Classical Ballet, and The Newtown Bee have already signed up as sponsors for the event.

To find out more about the Newtown Arts Festival visit the website at www.newtownartsfestival.com. To find out more about the NCAC visit www.newtownartscommission.org.