"In the interest of all our volunteers and our community as a whole, we unanimously agreed the best path forward is to hit pause, relax a bit, dream big and focus on long-term planning for future events."
That is how Marjorie Powell, Chris Powell and the rest of the Zucchini Festival committee announced in June that there would be no festival in August 2026. The committee had set a goal of 100 volunteers by June and fell short. The festival began in 2004 as an idea from the Downtown Merchants Association, with support from the Cultural Council, and it leaned on the town's Italian heritage. It had gone dormant for nine years before. Volunteer shortages and the pandemic were the reasons, and it came back in 2023.
West Stockbridge's other big outdoor gathering ran its course this year. The farmers market's Thursday music played on the Foundry Green at 2 Harris Street from May 21 to October 1, 3 to 6 p.m. Last Thursday was the final afternoon.
So from now through December, the town's calendar runs through two rooms: Old Town Hall at 9 Main Street, and The Foundry, the building that gives the green its name. Both are small, and neither one depends on a hundred people turning up on the same weekend. Each one asks its audience for something steadier, and each tells you plainly what your money goes toward.
Old Town Hall is being restored one ticket at a time
The West Stockbridge Historical Society opened its fall season on September 11. The first event was a free talk and book signing with Richard S. Jackson Jr. and Cornelia Brooke Gilder, the authors of "Houses of the Berkshires, 1870-1930." The building has been changing behind the programming.
"Over the past year we were fortunate to be awarded a matching grant from the Mass Cultural Council for interior restoration work," Society volunteer Karen Richards told The Berkshire Edge. The grant paid for a new chimney, emergency lighting, and repair and paint for the walls of the performance hall. The list still to come is a research room, better backstage space, and refinished floors. Proceeds from ticketed events go toward that remaining work.
That gives every ticketed night in the hall a second purpose. It is how the floor under your chair gets refinished. The rest of the Society's fall lineup:
- Intermediate Tai Chi with Mary Hannah Parkman, Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. on October 6, 13, 20 and 27. Weekly beginner and intermediate classes began September 29.
- Birds of Prey, Friday, October 16 at 7 p.m. Trish Marki of Silent Wings Raptor Rehab and Education brings live owls, hawks and other raptors.
- West Stockbridge Chamber Players Harvest Concert, Sunday, November 1 at 3 p.m., with works by Mozart, Holst and Somervell.
- The World of Bees, Friday, November 13 at 7 p.m. Kyle Bradford of the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program continues the Nature Talk Series.
- Annual Holiday Crafts Market, December 5. The schedule announcement doesn't give a time yet.
One correction for anyone who saved the earlier notices. The Berkshire Eagle ran a listing for the October 3 art-restoration "Roadshow" evening with master conservator Troy J. Amuso. The Society's own event page now marks it canceled. The history walk through Baldwin Farm and West Center, which covered the town's manufacturing and quarrying past, took place on September 26 at 25 W. Center Road.
The Foundry runs on a different kind of support
At 2 Harris Street, The Foundry gets its money the same direct way, through a different structure. Amy Brentano opened it in March 2019. It is a multidisciplinary performing arts venue, and it does not operate as a 501(c)(3). A release announcing its membership drive describes it as a social enterprise with a break-even business model. Its aim is to cover costs and send as much revenue as possible directly to artists. Because it can't apply for many government-funded grants, it relies on memberships, ticket sales and partnerships with local businesses that underwrite artist pay. Monthly memberships come in three tiers, from $30 to $80.
"The venue's intimate size is directly correlated with our ability to cut the fat associated with so many nonprofit entities and funnel as much money as possible to the artists who fill our space," Brentano, the producing artistic director, said in the release.
The ticket prices follow the same model. Most shows have three prices, labeled Community, General Admission and Pay-It-Forward, and all three get the same general admission seating. Community tickets come in a limited batch and can be claimed without proof of need. The Pay-It-Forward tier is for people with the funds to buy a ticket that helps subsidize the Community tickets for each event. Here is the published lineup through the holidays:
| Date | Show | Tickets: Community / General / Pay-It-Forward |
|---|---|---|
| Thu, Oct 8, 7:30 p.m. | Tammie Brown: BONKERZ! | Not yet captured |
| Sat, Oct 10, 7:30 p.m. | Chantell: Healing in Music | Not yet captured |
| Fri, Oct 16, 7:30 p.m. | The Berkshire Coven | Not yet captured |
| Sat, Oct 17, 7:30 p.m. | Christine Bilé | Not yet captured |
| Fri, Nov 6, 7:30 p.m. | Penny Arcade: Longing Lasts Longer | $25 / $35 / $45 |
| Thu, Nov 12, 7:30 p.m. | Klezmer Night with Itay Dayan and his Band | $20 / $30 / $40 |
| Sat, Nov 14, 2 p.m. | Show Up, Kids! | $15 children 12 and under / $25 adults / $35 |
| Sat, Nov 14, 7:30 p.m. | Peter Michael Marino, Desperately Seeking The Exit reading | $15 / $25 / $35 |
| Fri, Dec 4, 7:30 p.m. | WERQshires presents: A DRAG Christmas Story! | $15 / $25 / $35 |
| Sat, Dec 5, 7:30 p.m. | The Kwintet, assembled by Luke Seto | $15 / $25 / $35 |
| Thu, Dec 10, 7:30 p.m. | Pine Tree Flyers | $20 / $30 / $40 |
For the summer, The Foundry advertised Thursday lobby-bar service to go with the farmers market, along with a patio bar beside the Williams River. The market season has ended, so check the bar hours before planning a Thursday around them.
The calendar overlaps on several nights
Put the two lists side by side and you'll find a few nights where they compete for the same people.
October 16. The raptors arrive at Old Town Hall at 7 p.m., and The Berkshire Coven starts at The Foundry at 7:30. Both are small rooms in the same town, so picking one means skipping the other.
October 17. TurnPark Art Space, at 2 Moscow Road, holds a reception and panel discussion from 3 to 5 p.m. on Charles Ginnever's Hellenic Series. The park recently installed his large sculpture 4 the 5th (of Beethoven) in the Big Meadow. Christine Bilé plays The Foundry at 7:30 that evening, which makes for an afternoon and evening that fit together without any rushing.
November 14. The Foundry has two shows on the same Saturday. Show Up, Kids! is at 2 p.m. and Peter Michael Marino's reading is at 7:30.
December 5. The Historical Society's Holiday Crafts Market and The Kwintet's 7:30 p.m. set at The Foundry share a date. Once the market publishes its hours, that Saturday could cover both.
TurnPark has four weeks left
TurnPark's 10th-anniversary season is set to end on Friday, October 31. The exhibition "Marieken Cochius: Sensing. Between Perception and Experience" closes the same day. The Visit page lists hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Monday, closed Tuesday. The park's May season announcement said the grounds are open daily and only the galleries and gift shop close on Tuesdays. Confirm before you go on a Tuesday. TurnPark's Visit page lists no winter schedule, so after Halloween the town's cultural calendar sits entirely indoors.
The festival's next step depends on volunteers
The Zucchini Festival committee said it would spend the summer holding meetings "to strategize and brainstorm," and it thanked the community for its support so far. It came back once before after nine dormant years, and iBerkshires noted it has struggled at times with funding the number of volunteers it needs. Old Town Hall and The Foundry each need far fewer people on any given night, and each states what its ticket money pays for. Old Town Hall still has a research room, a backstage and a floor on its list. The Foundry's money goes to the artists on its stage.
Our team follows the West Stockbridge calendar the same way we follow its streets, and we enjoy steering weekend owners toward the right Friday night at Old Town Hall or the right Saturday at The Foundry. If you're planning your fall around the village, or thinking about how a place here might fit into it, Katie Soules and The Soules Team would be glad to talk it through. Schedule a consultation.
