KENT—The Kent business community will embrace the coming of spring this Saturday, May 4, when it holds a Springfest and Sip & Stroll from noon to 6 p.m. The Kent Chamber of Commerce and local businesses have planned a wide variety of activities for all ages.
For seven years, the Chamber sponsored a highly popular Holiday Champagne Stroll at the end of November, inaugurating the Christmas shopping season. That tradition ended in 2019, just as the world went into lockdown for Covid, but the Chamber has decided to revisit the concept in a different season—not as the world settles into winter darkness, but rather as it opens up to the glories of summer.
Springfest tickets are $25, $5 of which will be donated to the Kent Food Bank. online registration is being taken until Friday at 7 p.m. Those aged 21 and older can participate in the Sip & Stroll portion from 3 to 6 p.m., which will offer a variety of libations, including wine, champagne, Prosecco, tropical drinks, as well as mocktails and other non-alcoholic options, served at least at 20 different locations. Most of the Main Street businesses are participating, as well as many on Kent Green and Kent Barns.
Golden Falcon Field on Main Street will be where registration takes place and those age 21 and older, who are participating in the Sip & Stroll, can show their IDs and pick up their bracelets there.
Some of the planned activities include a chocolate bar at 45 on Main; a grill event at Ace Hardware; Kent Greenhouse will hold a succulent class; Trades Up plans a carpentry class for children, and Dow Integrative Health will be instructing how to heal dogs with touch.
Live music will be offered at several different locations, including a performance by local singer/songwriter Glori Wilder on the porch of Tarot in Thyme from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Free chairs will be provided.
Art galleries will be open throughout the town and Good Gallery will welcome Alibaba Awrang, a calligrapher, and Matin Malikzada, a potter. Both were among the last refugees rescued from Afghanistan when the U.S. pulled out. Both now live in New Milford and are enjoying successful careers in this country.
At Carol Corey Fine Art, 6 North Main St., Nathaniel Aric Galka will open his inaugural show, “A World Between Worlds,” Saturday with an artist’s reception from 5 to 7 p.m. The show will consist of new paintings and works on paper in Galka’s fantastical style.
Discounts will be offered at different stores and non-profits have been invited to set up tables or booths at the Golden Falcon field on Main Street. The Chamber now includes 38 non-profits among its membership and wants its events to help those groups as well.
