Chatham Area Business and Arts Blog

Thank you to everyone who helped plan SummerFest 2016! We are so pleased the weather cooperated as well as it did. Thank you also to the hundreds of people who attended. And finally, thank you to everyone who participated – all our vendors and entertainers. The event would not have been possible without you all.

Visit our Facebook page and let us know what you thought, how we can make it better even next year. Also, be sure to check out our photo album from the event.

The Chatham Area Business Alliance hosts Chatham SummerFest Saturday, July 9 from 10am-4pm. In celebration of its 40th year, organizers have planned the biggest and most exciting SummerFest yet. In addition to the popular village-wide sidewalk sale and Artisan Faire, more than 60 food and merchandise vendors and not-for profits organizations will be set up along Main Street, Park Row, and Hudson Avenue. Topping it all off will two stages of entertainment, one on each end of town.

Free Entertainment will include:

11am-Noon Magician Jim Snack
Renowned magician and master of sleight-of-hand Jim Snack will perform on the Spotlight Stage, located outside Chatham Brewing.

Noon-12:30pm Big Head Parade
This uniquely Chatham event features a parade of individuals wearing giant handmade papier-mâché heads that cover most of their body. In addition to the heads will be adults and kids in festive costume, musicians, floats and other surprises. All are welcome to march or watch. The parade kicks off from the Morris Memorial.

12:30-1:00pm “Three Billy Goats Gruff” in the Crandell Theatre
“Three Billy Goats Gruff” is a reworking of the classic children’s tale performed by The Columbia County Youth Theatre, directed by Edgar Acevedo, with musical arrangements by Paul Wyatt. This will be the first time that there has been a live performance on the Crandell Theatre stage since the early 1950s.

1:00-2:00pm So Percussion
This internationally-acclaimed, Brooklyn-based, modern percussion quartet will perform on the Spotlight Stage, located outside Chatham Brewing. Champions of innovation and curiosity, they produce original music, as well as collaborate with others, and are well known for using original and exotic instruments including the glockenspiel, bowed marimba, aluminum pipes and an amplified cactus.

2:00-4:00pm Rich Hallenbeck and Friends music jam
Will be performing on the Spotlight Stage, located outside Chatham Brewing.

Throughout the day Mac-Hadyn Theatre will perform in the village

For more information, please visit the website ChathamSummerFest.com. If you are interested in volunteering to help this community event, please contact Suzanne Knights at (518) 369-0541 or .

Chatham SummerFest will take place on Main Street, Park Row and Hudson Avenue. The street fair regularly draws hundreds of visitors and showcases many varied local organizations as well as performers, artists, and vendors. The Chatham Area Business Alliance (CABA), a coalition of individuals, businesses and organizations, works to promote the Chatham, New York region as a vibrant, positive environment for shopping, dining, enjoying the arts and conducting business.

Please join us in our celebration of Chatham SummerFest’s 40th anniversary Saturday, July 9th, 2016 from 10am to 4pm. The event will take place on Main Street, Park Row, and Hudson Avenue in Chatham.

Chatham NY has always been one of the most architecturally beautiful towns in Columbia County. Each summer Main Street, Park Row and Hudson Avenue turn into a lively ‘food, shopping and music’ festival and this year we hope to make it our best yet. We think that 40 years is a very big deal so we plan to make it a great event.

There will be live entertainment on two stages and the streets will be lined with over 70 artisan vendors such as woodcrafters, jewelry makers, textile artists, makers of apothecary products and more. We’re sure there will be a little something for everyone. And we’ll have farm animals and face painting for the kids.

Between the food trucks and our town’s great cafes, restaurants and brewery you’ll have lots of good eats to choose from such as Mexican, East Indian, and great American classics. Chatham is fast becoming a serious FOOD town!

“SummerFest is an event for people of all ages. There’s lots of socializing with good food and fun. My favorite part of SummerFest is the parade which anyone can jump into and march along with!” – Tom Curran, mayor of Chatham

“This year’s SummerFest should be better than ever. There is a great group spearheading it and there will lots of new vendors and merchants introducing themselves.” – Rita Van Alstyne, owner of R.H. Van Alstyne Fine Jewelry

We can’t wait to kick-off summer and celebrate this special anniversary with you all. Hope to see you all at SummerFest 2016.