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White River Valley High School’s Paul Andrade pulls himself out of the chilly dunk tank Saturday. WRVHS athletes and elementary school “Mini-Wildcats” were on hand for Bethel’s Forward Festival. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

Bethel celebrated the season over the weekend, drawing hundreds out for the annual Forward Festival that sprawled throughout town all day Saturday and into Sunday.

Re-envisioned as a community spirit event when it was revived about 15 years ago, Forward Fest has only grown in popularity over the years.

Mary Floyd, who sits on the Bethel Community Forward Festival committee said each year gets a little bit more impressive.

“This was probably the most populous one we’ve had,” she said, noting that though they don’t keep count of the number of people who pass through the festival, this year’s crowd felt quite a bit bigger. Floyd’s section of the festival, which took place on the town common from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., included about 35 vendors and civic organizations with booths filling the lawn and a slate of musical and performance acts on the bandshell stage.

Starting off the day, the White River Valley Mini-Wildcat cheerleaders took to the stage to please the crowd.

Ted Green Ford’s Meredith Mills discusses the ins and outs of the all-electric F150 Lightning at the Forward Fest’s electric car show Saturday. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

“They’re a group of elementary students,” Floyd said. “I saw them last year at a basketball game and asked their coach if they’d like to perform.”

The Mini-Wildcats’ enthusiasm was a good start to the day, Floyd said.

Besides the coordination of the festival committee, other town committees were also on hand to help out and add to the festival’s offerings. That included the groups such as Bethel for All, which also hosted a trails tour and bike event on Sunday, the town’s recreation committee, which put on a 5K race up Sand Hill Saturday morning, and the Bethel Historical Society, which presided over an art show in the old town hall building.

“Each group is basically working for their own benefit, but we all come together” for the festival, Floyd said.

Along Main Street, another organization—the Bethel Energy Committee—was busy hosting a slew of vendors and community groups. This set, a short walk over the bridge from the common, focused on weatherization, energy efficiency, and climate change issues.

The Green Mountain Roots play classic rock covers on stage outside of Babes Bar during Bethel’s Forward Festival Saturday. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

The main event of the Bethel Energy Show, as this portion of Forward Fest called itself, was an all-electric car display.

The car show, part of the National Drive Electric Week celebrations observed all over the country last week, brought a number of electric vehicles together—from hatchbacks to full-size trucks—for people to check out first hand and ask questions of their owners.

The vehicles went on parade from the school to the Main Street parking lot where they were on display for the afternoon.

Stockbridge’s Ted Green Ford brought an electric F150 Lightning pickup truck, which held the attention of many passers-by.

Also on hand were examples of the Nissan Leaf, Volkswagen ID.4, and Chevy Bolt, as well as a small fleet of Rivian R1T trucks.

Different people were drawn to the electric vehicles for different reasons, said energy committee chair Nicole Cyr. “There are definitely people who are into the cars themselves,” she said, and others who were most interested in how the technology can lessen fossil fuel use.

The committee gave prizes (gift certificates from Bethel businesses) for a best-in-show prize also in a game of automobile trivia.

Besides electric vehicles, representatives from local businesses and organizations such as Tri-Valley Transit, Efficiency Vermont, 350.org, ECFiber, WCVR, and Integrity Energy were on hand to give demonstrations and talk to visitors about energy issues.

Integrity Energy’s John Mattern brought along a solar panel from the mid-1980s, which he demonstrated was still capable of making power, albeit at decreased efficiency, nearly 40 years later. He noted that today’s solar panel models yield about twice the output.

Most importantly, said Cyr, the event drew out lots of people to talk with one another and exchange information— including energy committee members from at least four other towns.

Once the evening began to roll around, the vendors closed up shop and visitors to the Forward Fest migrated to the Babes Bar parking lot, where downtown businesses had collaborated to put on a second wave of entertainment.

A small stage erected to the lot’s southeast side served as home for musical acts, starting with local favorite the Bear Mountain Jammers.

Jennings & McComber followed them up with original acoustic music and then the evening got rocking with Green Mountain Roots doing classic rock covers.

At 7 p.m. Bow Thayer took the stage, singing his lively original songs, and he was followed by rock and country artist, Sarah King of Ripton.

With music playing into the night, Bethel put a cap on another fine Forward Fest.

Though co-organizer Owen Daniel-McCarter noted that the evening crowd was only about half the size as at last year’s festival, “it was a really fun event.”

People were particularly happy with the food vendors on site, he added.

“Bow Thayer was rockin’ and Sarah King was great— she has a phenomenal voice! We are excited to support local artists in our community,” Daniel-McCarter said.

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