BERLIN — The 8th Annual Berlin Peach Festival will be held Saturday, Aug. 6, from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., on the grounds of the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum, 208 North Main Street. Admission is free. Rain date for the festival will be Sunday, Aug. 7, from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Mayor Gee Williams will officially open the festival with help from Little Miss and Little Mister Berlin Peach 2015. The Boy Scouts from Troop 261 will present the colors. All afternoon, attendees will be able to stroll among the displays, demonstrations and sales tables. There will be delicious peaches for sale from a variety of Mid-Atlantic growers.
Vendors include debidean jewelry, Bogan Pottery, Patricia Rouch (American Girl doll clothes), Angela Rocco Photography, Creatively Bent (jewelry), Love, Byrd Soap, Mudboy Guitar Works, Kimpressions Designs, Jenoc Designs (wooden bowls) and Cheryl Young (stained glass).
Demonstrations feature Linda Davis’ baskets and quilted goods, Ocean Breeze Alpacas (knitting, spinning and fiber arts), Wes Townsend’s Back Street Apiary and Tiffany Nichols (master gardener). Food vendors include the Arcadia Questers, Baked Desserts Café & Gallery, Buckingham Presbyterian Church and the Worcester County Developmental Center. Information booths will include the Harrison family with informal talks about its nursery business in the early 20th century.
Children’s activities begin at 11:30 as the kids “shake their booties” to make ice cream the old-fashioned way. In addition, kids can try their hands at juggling with Cascading Carlos (Mir), take old-time photo cut-outs, have their faces painted and put on temporary peach tattoos. The day’s entertainment will feature Micky Justice with a special performance by Perpetual Commotion, a children’s violin / fiddle ensemble.
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 50-50 raffle tickets from the Berlin Heritage Foundation.
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.” In addition, the museum will have a sales and membership information booth.
The festival is sponsored by the Berlin Heritage Foundation. Funding for this event is in part provided by Taylor Bank and 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.
The Berlin Heritage Foundation thanks the many additional organizations and individuals working to make the day a success for their support.