It’s a party!
From Best Places
If the second annual Cheshire Cheese Festival is anything like the first festival, it will be well worth a trip to western MA for the day. Last year’s festival was a huge success and we predict it will get bigger and better every year.
Why cheese?
This festival is based on a fascinating historic event, described in Wikipedia:
Cheshire was incorporated in 1793, and its residents were strongly partisan in the election battles of the country’s early days. The Adams–Jefferson election of 1800 was hard fought, and Cheshire was the only Berkshire town that favored Jefferson. When their candidate won the election, the town searched for a way to show their support and pay a tribute to their new president. Because Cheshire, like their namesake, specialized in dairying and making cheese, they decided to send a gift to the president of a Cheshire cheese that used curds from every farmer in town. The resulting cheese was 4 feet (1.2 m) in diameter, 18 inches (460 mm) thick and weighed 1,235 pounds (560 kg). It was moved on a sled drawn by six horses when it was shipped off to Washington, D.C. by water, where it drew a personal letter of thanks from President Jefferson.
All kinds of fun …
The festival will be held from 11am-4pm. Entertainment includes a Cheshire Cheesy Kids Fun Run and a 5K Run & Walk (click here to register), a beer garden, a cheese cave, a DJ, games, raffles and a reading of “A Big Cheese for the White House” – the true story of the giant cheese.
Admission is only $5 and vendors can obtain a 10 x 10 booth space for only $20. (Ricki (The Cheese Queen) and I will be there, selling Ricki’s new book and other stuff (if the creek don’t rise).
Portrait of an Organizer
I met Justin Krusznya at the annual meeting of the MA Cheese Guild in January. He was there to tell us about the festival. Afterwards, I asked him a few questions about his experiences:
What made you decide to start a cheese festival?
I became involved volunteering my time as a member of Cheshire’s advisory board when the school committee announced that it would close the town’s elementary school. I wanted to do all that I could to protect the town’s school. A group of private citizens formed Cheshire Citizens for Education to do research and fight for the school. I was active in the group.
The town’s morale was down so I wanted to have a family fun event. Members from that group formed the Cheshire Community Action Team (Cheshire CAT).
The most important piece of history in our town is the mammoth cheese gifted to President Jefferson. There is a monument in the center of town of the cider press that was used to make the mammoth cheese. Also, in the 1850’s the town was producing cheese and filed two patents for improving the cheese making process. With all the history of cheese in our town, it made sense to have a cheese festival, with the main theme being cheese. The mammoth cheese was made July 20th, 1801, so, I wanted to keep the celebration of the mammoth cheese history close to the date in July.
The group began planning, making phone calls, and e-mailing vendors and entertainment for the event. Roughly 800 people attended, 42 vendors, live music, a DJ running fun activities and events for both adults and kids, sports, races, the cheesy 5K run, and more. Food was created with cheese products, samples of cheese, along with wine/beer.
What was it like for you on the day itself?
In the morning, it was a lot of preparation. We woke up and went right down to the school to start putting out tables/chairs and we directed the vendors to their spots. We laid out the site and created a map ahead of time. Then, we went down and spray painted the designated spots so everyone would know exactly where to be.
The day itself was great – weather cooperated and it was sunny. The 5k and kid’s fun run went well.
We didn’t know what to expect with a crowd coming in but from the start to about 2 hours prior to the event, there was a steady stream of people coming in. I worked the front table for a bit , but vendors would have a lot of questions and I was being pulled everywhere. For instance, running smaller bills and change around and getting ice for the beer! Also, emptying garbage and moving around the containers. So many little details that you wouldn’t know until the event!
Are you going to have a team of volunteers this year to empty the trash, replenish the ice, etc.? If so, what else will you do differently?
We had a bunch of volunteers last year but more would always make everything a lot easier! We had 4 people collecting money for admission and raffle. 2 people on bouncy houses. 2 on the kids activities. The police chief helped the night before and day of set up and worked the event.
We will tell the vendors to bring their own ice! Pretty much we told the vendors to be self sufficient. I’ll put out a few more trash cans, spread out. I would like to switch to online ticket sales so we don’t have to collect so much the day of the event.
