The town of Mansfield hosted the annual Eastern Connecticut Maple Festival for the first time in the festival’s history on March 9 and 10.
The event had over 100 vendors and 14 food trucks according to Diane Nadeau, the president and CEO of the Windham Region Chamber of Commerce, which organized the festival. She said that an estimated 2,000 people attended the festival across the two days.
In an email, Nadeau said that the highlight of the event was the variety of maple-based food available.
Food vendors at the Maple Festival are always required to have at least one maple-based menu item. Nadeau listed maple coffees and lattes, maple bacon donuts, maple cotton candy and maple chicken empanadas among many other examples of the food offered at the festival.
“This year was also the first year that we had someone at the event making maple syrup,” Nadeau said.
The University of Connecticut Agriculture Department taught people how to make maple syrup at home and the America Museum of Willimantic presented a history of maple syrup and a syrup tasting.
The Windham Region Chamber of Commerce had organized the Hebron Maple Festival but moved to a new location when the festival’s size outgrew the town. According to Nadeau, the downtown began to expand with more residences and businesses as the years went on, and the festival eventually started to congest the Hebron downtown area.
This was the first year that a town other than Hebron hosted the Maple Festival. Hebron continued to host their own event on March 16 and 17 that highlighted Hebron businesses and history. The Hebron event also included a tractor parade, a 5K run and local businesses as vendors and sponsors of the celebration.
Nadeau said that the cold weather presented a challenge for the festival, but attendees stayed warm by drinking maple coffee and lattes.
“Sunday was also very windy and many of our vendors had to take down their booths and close early,” Nadeau said. “Those that were able to stay continued to provide great products. Almost all of our maple food vendors were there to the end serving up wonderful treats!”
Our goal is to make sure that UConn students who are not leaving for spring break have the opportunity to come to the festival and have some local fun.
Diane Nadeau, President and CEO of the Windham Region Chamber of Commerce
Nadeau said the festival will return to Mansfield next year and take place on the second weekend in March.
“Our goal is to make sure that UConn students who are not leaving for spring break have the opportunity to come to the festival and have some local fun,” Nadeau said. “We are also hoping to reach out to more local organizations, nonprofits and youth groups to be a part of the event.”
Nadeau said that because a significant portion of planning for this year’s festival included deciding on Mansfield as a host, the chamber of commerce did not have as much time as usual to work with local groups and give them a chance to participate. She encouraged student organizations at UConn to reach out and get involved in the festival.
“It is a great way for clubs or groups to get out a message, showcase a project or raise funds for a cause or their organization,” Nadeau said.
Nadeau said anyone interested in participating in the Maple Festival next year can contact her at dianenadeau2000@gmail.com or 860-428-7739.
The issue with the Windham Region Chamber of Commerce’s version is that it includes too many windows-and-doors services, vendors not from CT or even New England, and no involvement from the community. It didn’t outgrow Hebron – they moved it because they didn’t respect the maple-making history of the town.