Linda Bassick, Maple Roots Festival in East Montpelier Credit: Luke Awtry

Linda Bassick, Maple Roots Festival, Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks, East Montpelier, Saturday, July 26:

From noon to midnight on Saturday, the Maple Roots Festival took over East Montpelier’s Morse Farm. Just five years in, the family-friendly event already has strong traditions in place. One of my favorites is the parade led by Linda Bassick, a longtime Vermont musician and early educator who has played every year of the fest. At 5 p.m., Bassick provided colorful pool noodles to anyone who wanted to join a march through the festival grounds and led a sing-along to the popular children’s song “The More We Get Together.” The parade always ends with Bassick climbing aboard the Jammbulance — a retired ambulance converted into a mobile live-performance rig by Vermont musician Steven Yardley — and playing a set of children’s songs by her Busy Morning Ban. Hits included “Squirrel in a Tree” and “Thank You, Feet.” It was then that I took part in the tastiest Maple Roots Festival tradition, for my third time that day: a Morse Farm maple-chocolate twist creemee.

This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2025.

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Luke Awtry took the long way to becoming a professional photographer, with a path through music, technology and engineering, and he remains active in each. His first Seven Days assignment was on Town Meeting Day in March 2018, and he has since supported...