Freestyle Fun
Wednesday 24-Saturday 27
Burlington’s Vermont Comedy Club throws an end-of-summer pool party (metaphorically speaking) called Mini-Fest. The four-day celebration of all things improv features an audience-participation jam, a Best in Show competition, the Mothra troupe’s after-dark storytelling hour, and performances by the VCC touring group, the Kingdom Kids, and improv power couple James and Waltien (pictured).
Come This Far
Saturday 27
Vermont’s fourth annual First African Landing Day marks the arrival of the first enslaved people in Virginia in 1619 — and celebrates the resilience of the Black American community in all the years since — with food, dancing, talks and more at Burlington’s Intervale Center. In keeping with this year’s theme, “We Come This Far by Faith,” guests include Bishop Dwayne Royster and gospel musicians Adrian B. King and Bishop Cortez Vaughn.
Give Up the Funk
Friday 26 & Saturday 27
JAG Productions opens its 2022-23 season with an outdoor performance by funk liberation group Britton & the Sting at King Arthur Baking in Norwich. The band, fronted by Tony Award winner Britton Smith, takes to the stage for a joyfully audacious show that’s half concert, half musical.
Easy as Pie
Saturday 27
Lovers of one of Vermont’s favorite sweet treats will want to sample the first annual Whoopie Pie Fest & Parade of Heroes along Rutland’s Center Street. The day features a whoopie pie baking competition, a parade honoring pandemic frontline workers, live music, street performances and the unveiling of Rutland’s largest whoopie pie.
Swing It On
Sunday 28
Putney’s Next Stage Arts gets audiences jumping and jiving with an outdoor concert featuring Zara Bode’s Little Big Band and StompBoxTrio. The classic swing group and hip-shaking blues-rock-soul band, respectively, fill the night with boogie-woogie beats while David’s Catering dishes out tandoori cuisine and Caledonia Spirits shakes up drinks.
Long Live the Flavor
Sunday 28
Fiesta Viva el Sabor salutes the end of summer with an evening of mouthwatering food and live music, featuring a cash bar. Addison County’s women-led Mexican and Guatemalan culinary collective serves up scrumptious bites at the Marble Works in Middlebury.
Spray Painting
Ongoing
The Jackson Gallery at Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater presents “In Praise of Darkness: The ‘Writing on the Wall Project’ and Recent Paintings” by Philadelphia-born, Vermont-based painter Samuel Wyatt. Wyatt’s work explores all the textures of urban life — the gritty concrete, hulking trash bags and dripping graffiti.
This article appears in Aug 24-30, 2022.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
