If you’ve attended the Utica Music and Arts Festival in years past or are into the Facebook frenzy of promotion happening 24/7, then you’ve heard mention of this Utica Greens Festival. I’d like to light that situation up for a moment because this year is going to be really big for Greens Fest! Saturday, September 17th from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m. you can wander your hungry and ware purchasing selves to Varick Street and head for the tent! Price Chopper Grocery Stores are a presenting sponsor, and we are grateful to again be working with them on this project.
Carmel corn!
For starters, this part of the festival is your family friendly fun. Kitty Glitter will be romping around the place making general fun wherever she lands. You can learn more about that here in a separate post. There is a stage with live music and for $10.00 you can purchase a ticket to sample many of the unique and delicious culinary items that are local to Utica. Area restaurants will have the infamous Utica Greens dish available, which the Greens Fest is obviously named after. It’s a good bet you will see things like Tomato Pie and Chicken Riggies, pusties and half moon cookies, Italian pastries in general like you only dream about. Utica Coffee Roasters will be vending! Much love to those people and their great coffee and message! I know Fratello’s Pizzeria and Orapello’s Wood Fired Pizza is coming. So is Mentolarro’s Cafe. You will get to try out SmokeyNotes Foods if you haven’t already. Click that link, Matt is a great friend of Varick Street and the musical community and the food is fantastic! The Candy Corner will be representing their fine assortment of sweet treats to round out your palate.
Ree Love and Kimberly Chiro Howard Preston of the CNY Derby Phodography.com
Vendors will be around with nonedible items also. Meyda Tiffany will have a booth of their exceptional work. Chester’s Flower Shop will have a table, Loosen Up Massage Thereapy will help you release all of the lactic acid you built up in your muscles from the dancing Thursday and Friday nights, and Ramon Aiello will have space to showcase the truly amazing photography he does with Phodography.com and Fetish By Design Photography. You’ve already seen some of Ray’s great work on this blog. He’s one of the people behind the scenes keeping this festival running along smoothly, so show some love. Other area artists will be peppered around as well, including MMB Inspiration Jewelry.
I’m not even close to done. This year, as I said, things are huge. Some of the best news is that the Roller Derby is coming! I’m quoting from the event page here “CNYRD will be on Varick St. hosting a special exhibition bout with two special teams created to show off the finer points of Utica. The Mean Greens will face off against the Chick Riggies to show off some awesome derby skills along with music, games and giveaways.” The Mean Greens v. The Chick Riggies? Perfection! Keep an eye here for more on that. I will be speaking with some of the derby gang in no time flat.
Gotta double this up to get you as many chicks in skates as possible!
These two photos of derby are also by Ray- http://www.phodography.com
We don’t think you’ve had enough fun even then, so we’re having a Zumba party! From the Zumba Street Bash event page: “[organizers worked to] introduce ZUMBA and its dynamic music as part of this ANNUAL UMAF EVENT and dancing ZUMBA with reckless abandon on the Streets of Utica is going to be a blast. Led by Kerry Daly, Lisa Lallier Murphy, Jeannie Borgia-Wolcott, the UTICA ZUMBA CREW from the SPOT – 1712 Whitesboro St. Utica – Sue and Travverse Crawford, Teoka Muhammad, and ELizabeth Zagorica.”
I told Kitty Glitter to pin that tail on extra tightly!
Come down to Greens Fest to get your daytime fun on! Many more vendors to be announced in the coming weeks! If you would like to be one (vend, friends!), please follow any of the Greens Festival links to for more information or contact me directly. Your admission is free if you have one of the weekend passes and if you don’t, you can pay your $10.00 admission when you hit the gate at Varick Street.
Full list of vendors at Greens Fest:
SmokeyNote Foods
Mr. McGills
Fratellos
Kitty Glitter
Montellaro’s
Casey’s Deli
MMB INSPIRATION
Pampered Chef
Skinography Ink
Candy Corner
Chester’s Flower Shop
National Brain Injury Foundation (NBIF)
Orapello’s Wood Fired Pizza
CNY Roller Derby
Meyda Lighting
Shaklee
Hand Candy Mittens
Utica Coffee Roasting Company
Healing Intentions
Gelston Castle Estate
Leaf Loaf & Ladle
Roma Sausage & Deli
Paesano’s Pizzeria
Flat Iron Pizza
Spy Ninja Designs
American Red Cross
Strangers Helping Strangers
Saranac Soda Booth
Radisson Hotel
New York Sash
Myoura’s Taste of Cambodia
Blub Blub Hookah Hub
Nola’s
Zeina’s Cafe
Romp and Stomp by D & S
Hotel Utica
O’Donnels Pub & Grill
Star Bakery
Steven Swan Humane Society
~MLW
umafmelissa - The Meme-Brain 