Arts and Entertainment at Berkshire’s Blueberry and Book Festival

The Fifth Annual Berkshire Blueberry and Book Festival will offer a full range and full schedule of local performers in two entertainment venues, along with an art show featuring local artists.

The Berkshire Blueberry and Book Festival will be held Saturday, July 20, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in and around the Berkshire Free Library and Community Hall and Fire Station, all at the corner of Route 38 and Jewett Hill Road in Berkshire, N.Y., located six miles north of Newark Valley and 15 miles north of Owego, via Route 38; if you’re coming from the Triple Cities, take Route 38B west to 38. If you’re coming from Ithaca, use Route 79 east to Richford and then 38 south to Berkshire.

Entertainment will commence at 9:20 a.m. in the fire station with Ed Nizalowski playing both his soprano sax and his flute – not all at once, of course. Then singing and guitar duo Sister Moon takes the stage at 10:50 a.m. with a range of folk music, which will be followed by soprano Farrah Fiacco at 11:50 a.m. Fiacco is also returning once again as Miss Blueberry. 

At 1 p.m., the Blind Boys Blues Band (Robert Beck of Newark Valley and Evan Hubbard of Tioga Center) will entertain festgoers before Andy. G Fagan, from Waverly, with his guitar and vocals, wraps up beginning at 2:30 p.m. Fagan also writes some of his own music.  

Entertainment on the Community Hall stage will begin at 10 a.m. with the women’s a cappella quartet – Remember When, followed by Melissa Collins of Owego on her harp beginning at 11 a.m. Owego’s Craig Russell on guitar will take the stage at noon. 

Valley Harmony returns for the fourth year at 1 p.m., singing a cappella music of all kinds. At 2 p.m. the woodwind / piano trio – Laurie Holdridge, Anne Austin and Aric Phinney, will perform a variety of classical and modern music. The day will wrap up with father and son duo (Bob and Brian Card) Two of a Kind.

The art show will also take place in the Community Hall. Some 20 local artists will display their work and compete for two $50 prizes, one a people’s choice award and the other juried.  

Also of special note at this year’s festival is the expanded antique car and truck show. For the past several months antique car owners have been enticed to participate in this show with three people’s choice trophies that will be awarded at 2:20 that day. Look for the cars and truck right behind the fire station.  

This event provides funding for the Berkshire Free Library, which serves both Berkshire and Richford. Besides the program advertisers, the Town of Berkshire and Visions Federal Credit Union sponsor the festival.