Bromley Mountain
Route 11, Winhall
802 824-5522
FEB 15: February Festival: Yearly celebration kicked off with a torchlight parade, followed by fireworks, music, dancing, and a live auction.
Historical Society of Windham County
6th Annual Soup Fest & Silent Auction
NewBrook Fire Station, Route 30, Newfane
http://www.historicalsocietyofwindhamcounty.org
MARCH 29: An ever-popular event with more than 100 silent auction items and a delicious smorgasbord of soups donated by 10 restaurants from the 10 depot towns along the old West River Railroad line, Brattleboro to South Londonderry. Soup, bread, snacks at 5p, followed by desserts. Silent auction bidding and 50/50 raffle opens at 4; closes at 5:30. Benefit for West River Railroad and Windham County museums.
Mount Snow
Mount Snow, West Dover
802 464-4191
MARCH 20–22: Mount Snow Reggae Festival.
Fifth Annual River Gallery School of Art’s Off the Wall
Saturday, March 28, 5–8p
118 Elliot St., Brattleboro
802 257-1577
Tickets: http://www.rivergalleryschool.org/index.php/events
In River Gallery School of Art’s “Off the Wall” lottery, everyone’s a winner! With more than 100 paintings donated by RGS staff, students, friends, and host of well-known professional regional artists, this is one of the area’s most notable and broadly reaching arts events.
A $125 lottery ticket ($100 for early birds) allows one to go home from the event with a work of art. Participants choose a numbered table tennis ball to place in the tumbler. Excitement builds as the giant tumbler starts to spin at 6:15 p.m. When a number is picked, the participant selects a painting from those still available and literally takes it off the wall.
The art can be previewed in the school’s gallery at 36 Main St., Brattleboro, throughout March and starting at 5 on the night of the event. New art is posted online right up to the evening of March 28.
Cost for non-participants: $25 to view some great art and soak in the quick pace of the action.
Great refreshments are available for all!
All proceeds benefit RGS’s community-oriented art programming. River Gallery School was founded in 1976 by Ric Campman and Barbara Merfeld Campman as a place for children to come after school to be guided and nurtured in creativity. A recent grant from the Thomas Thompson Trust facilitates the sharing of art-making activities with area caregivers and many local agencies including the Brooks Memorial Library. The RGS Outreach Program brings creativity to seniors and youth in locations such as the senior center, The Gathering Place, and area nursing homes. Collaborations include programs with local non-profits and area schools.
Stratton Mountain
5 Village Lodge Road, Stratton
802 297-4000
APRIL 10–11: Wondergrass presents Sugar and Strings 2020. Celebrate springtime in Vermont with sugar shacks, sugar snow, and plenty of strings. Beer and cider sampling, live music, family-friendly fun.
Weston Playhouse 2020 Walker Farm Music Series
705 Main St., Weston
802 824-5288
Tickets: http://www.westonplayhouse.secure.force.com/ticket
FEB 22: Sugartone Brass Band. NYC-based, this band has been funkin’ up the brass band scene for nearly two decades. In 2007, Sugartone released its first album, “Live in Brooklyn,” and continued an Upper West Side residency at Jacques-Imo’s, a cafe fashioned after the famous same-name restaurant in New Orleans. In 2010, Sugartone moved to a new restaurant, Bourbon Street Bar and Grill, on Midtown Manhattan’s famous Restaurant Row. Sugartone is New Orleans brass through and through. And they’re bringing it to Vermont!
MARCH 14: Upstate emerged from New York’s Hudson Valley in 2015 with their critically acclaimed debut, “A Remedy.” The Poughkeepsie Journal raved that the group “need[s] nothing more than their voices to channel rhythm and stoke your emotions,” Chronogram hailed their “infectiously sunny organic stew,” and The Alt called them “toe-tapping, contagious, and fun.” The album earned the band festival performances from Mountain Jam to FreshGrass, as well as a slew of national headline dates and support slots with everyone from The Felice Brothers and Phox to Marco Benevento and Cory Henry.
29th Women’s Film Festival
March 20–29
NE Youth Theatre, 100 Flat St., Brattleboro
802 257-7364
Tickets: http://www.womensfilmfestival.org
Brattleboro’s 29th Women’s Film Festival (WFF) is the longest running festival of its kind in New England. A celebration of movies from around the world, it’s a platform for women to tell their own stories.
Over the course of two weekends 35 documentaries, features, and shorts will be screened at the New England Youth Theatre. With films about the arts, friendship, activism, sports, lesbian/queer lives, motherhood, gender roles, religion, fashion, radium, romance, and much more, there’s a broad range of subject, audience, and appeal.
The WFF brings to Southern Vermont films that can often only be seen if one’s lucky enough to travel to festivals such as Tribeca and Sundance. Many of the films included in the festival over the years have gone on to receive acclaim and award nominations. To boot: This is a major fundraiser for the work of the Women’s Freedom Center, a non-profit domestic and sexual violence organization in Southeastern Vermont.
Harris Hill Ski Jump
Feb 15–16
Cedar Street, Brattleboro
802 254-4565
The Harris Hill Ski Jump competition is a near-century-old Brattleboro tradition. It began in 1922 with the vision and hard work of Fred Harris, who built the jump and commissioned the coveted Winged Ski Trophy. This prestigious award goes to any jumper who wins the tournament three times. It has been retired only five times, the last in 2000. Could it happen in the near future? Slovenian Blaz Pavlic won the event in 2017 and 2019, and set a new hill record of 104 meters/342 feet. This year an international field of up and coming world class jumpers will vie for their chance to etch their name on the trophy.
Harris Hill Ski Jump on Cedar Street is New England’s only Olympic-size venue, one of only six of its size in the United States. Each year thousands of thrill-seekers come to watch jumpers soar over 300 feet at up to 60 miles per hour. The hill is carefully groomed with man-made snow to ensure optimal conditions.
The event lineup for the weekend includes the Pepsi Challenge/U.S. Cup on Saturday and Fred Harris Memorial Tournament on Sunday. Gates open at 10 a.m., when spectators can watch practice jumping. It all shifts into high gear at 11:30 a.m. with opening ceremonies, followed by a trial round and two rounds of scored competition. The family-friendly event features music, food, a heated beer tent, a bonfire, tailgating and mascot Jumper the Cow.
