The 22nd annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival will take place on Saturday, Sept. 27, from 2 to 8 p.m. in Downtown Storrs.
What started in 2004 as a small community gathering in the parking lots of Downtown Storrs has grown into an event welcoming between 3,000-4,000 people from Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, according to the event’s website and Senior Communications Manager Kathleen Patterson.
According to Patterson, the festival welcomes over 80 booths this year offering crafts, activities for all ages and food. Patterson says there is a large expected attendance as the festival falls on the same weekend as the University of Connecticut’s family weekend.
“We see all ages, all walks of life,” said Patterson. “People who live in town, people in neighboring residences. We draw people from all over Connecticut. It’s really fun to see all the different people just having a good day in Downtown Storrs.”
For families with young children, there will be a “Kids Zone” on Wilbur Cross Way with activities, games and performances specifically catered to young audiences, according to a press release for the event.
At 2:30 p.m., the annual Community Puppet Pageant will commence. The pageant, titled “Prehistoric Mansfield,” is a story produced by the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry in collaboration with UConn’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. It will showcase the wildlife and animal kingdoms from thousands of years ago that once roamed what is now Mansfield, Conn.
Patterson said that there may be opportunities for audience participation during the pageant even if members could not attend the puppet-building workshops earlier this month.
A lineup of live music will perform throughout the day beginning at 2:15 p.m., opening with E.O. Smith Drumline. The UConn jazz students will follow at 3 p.m.
Local band Ruby Leftstep, a group who has performed several times before in the Mansfield area, takes the stage at 5 p.m. UConn Drumline is set to follow at 6 p.m.
All Night Boogie Band, a blues and rock ‘n’ roll group from Burlington, Vt., headlines at 6:30 p.m. and performs until the event’s closing. The group’s guitarist,UConn journalism class of 2022 journalism graduate Brendan Casey, said he looks forward to returning to his alma mater and performing some of the band’s newest tunes.
“It feels good to go back and play,” Casey said. “When I was a student there, I’d always walk past the square in Storrs Center and think ‘Man, I’d like to play that band show someday.’”
According to the website, this festival is a low-waste event, meaning that Mansfield Downtown Partnership, Inc. has asked the businesses and organizations at the event to promote activities that will generate little to no waste. As part of this effort, visitors are asked to bring their own bags and reusable water bottles. There will also be stations to dispose of trash, recycling and compost set up around the festival site and operated by some of the 160 event volunteers.
Due to the festivities, there will be parking restrictions from Friday, Sept. 26, through Saturday, Sept. 27. There will be no permitted on-street parking on Dog Lane, Royce Circle, the Bolton Road exit or Wilbur Cross Way according to an email to residents of the Oaks on The Square.
The email also stated there will be road closures from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on all of the aforementioned roads as well as Elsie Marsh Way and the west access road behind Huskies Restaurant & Bar.
This event is free to the public. Visit the Celebrate Mansfield Festival website for a map of the event and a full rundown of the performances.