Saturday on the Bridge of Flowers

A few of us Middletown residents were in Greenfield, Mass (a down-on-its heels, former milltown on the Connecticut River) this weekend to attend the annual Green River Festival. The festival, now in its 23rd year, is a production of the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce. I've attended for about 20 years, and I've watched it grow from a modest music and hot-air ballooning festival, to what it is now, a major two-day event that, for the first time ever, was sold out (at about 7,500-8,000, I'd estimate, at $45 a ticket). It's held at Greenfield Community College, and is very well organized, though the crowds were a bit overwhelming this year. The music is focused on adult roots-rock and folk music, and features national acts. In the Pioneer Valley WRSI, the local, very popular radio station, plays this music as its staple. The festival raises money for the Chamber of Commerce. The festival is booked by Jim Olsen, proprietor of Signature Sounds Records, and a show host on WRSI. Imagine a similar kind of festival for Middletown.

We spent Saturday morning on a short Berkshire tour, stopping in Shelburne Falls to walk the lovely Bridge of Flowers (an abandoned trolley trestle, now a walking path and cross-river garden), the Trolley museum, the natural river potholes below Salmon Falls, and organic sandwiches from the local grocer. Now imagine a trolley running down our Main Street.