BERLIN — The 6th Annual Berlin Peach Festival will be held Saturday, Aug. 2, from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., on the grounds of the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum. Admission is free. Rain date for the festival will be Sunday, Aug. 3, from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.
The festival will be opened officially by Mayor Gee Williams with help from Little Miss and Little Mister Berlin Peach 2013. All afternoon, attendees will be able to stroll among the displays, demonstrations and sales tables. Naturally, there will be delicious Delmarva peaches for sale from a variety of Delmarva growers (the type of peach and its grower depends on what is ripe at that time).
In addition to returning favorites, new vendors this year include Love, Byrd Soaps, Sea Drift Sculptures, Terry and Rayna Pazmino pottery, and artwork by Pat Ellison. New demonstrations include Dr. Paul Ewell, a nautical historian from Somerset County.
Food vendors include the Sons of the American Legion Post 123, Arcadia Questers, Baked Desserts Café & Gallery, the Berlin Coffee House, the Berlin Lions and Lionesses, Buckingham Presbyterian Church, Chesapeake Bay Farms Creamery, Stevenson United Methodist Church and the Worcester County Developmental Center. Information booths will be provided by the Harrison Family, Main Street Berlin and more.
Children’s activities begin at 11:30 a.m. as the kids “shake their booties” to make ice cream the old-fashioned way. Other activities for the kids include an old-fashioned cupcake walk, juggling by Cascading Carlos, photo cut-outs and temporary peach tattoos. Entertainment will feature Micky Justice from the Folk Heroes.
As in the past, there will be a pie-baking contest, three pie-eating contests and a container of peach pits to guess, with prizes for all the winners. In addition, attendees may purchase raffle tickets from the Berlin Heritage Foundation for a basket filled with a hotel guests package at the Atlantic Hotel, Lighthouse Sound or Coconut Mallorie; dinner for two at the Dunes Manor; and assorted other “peachy” goodies.
All afternoon, the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum will be open for tours of the historic 1832 house, as well as of the upstairs exhibition “Images of the Past.”
The event is sponsored by the Berlin Heritage Foundation. Funding for this event is in part provided by the Worcester County Arts Council, Maryland State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, organizations dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive.