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.

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 more than 500 Seven Days stories with his photography.