STATEof THEarts Party on the Trails:
Barre’s Treasured Recreation Area Throws a Summer Celebration B Y KEV I N J. K ELLE Y
M
city’s downtown revival. While watching one of the WaterFire shows a couple of years ago, Couture recalls, “I turned to a friend and said, ‘This would be perfect for Millstone.’” ROCKFIRE won’t just appeal to the senses; Millstone’s granite legacy lends it a cultural and historical dimension, as well. Granite Qu arry, undate Some 70 quarries were once worked there d by a mostly immigrant labor force that included Couture’s father. The quarrymen left behind ruins and relics that give Millstone its unique character. For example, walkers and bikers among the maples and hemlocks can encounter the surreal sight of 50-foot-tall getting the word out about Millstone Hill. Despite stone-block pyramids — the remnants of what Couture describes as “a terrible winter,” the area trestles for the trains that hauled slabs of now attracts hundreds of hikers, bikers and skiers from both in and out of state. Some choose to stay at the inn granite to processing in Barre’s sheds. The solstice gathering, which starts at 2 p.m., will that Couture has converted from a former farmhouse. inaugurate the three-mile Cultural Heritage Trail that “Business for it is developing slowly,” he says. “It’s a includes permanent sculptures by local granite carvers matter of building the brand.” as well as one-day installations by various Vermont artists. ROCKFIRE is also intended as a come-on for those ROCKFIRE, an elemental solstice celebration featuring Pete Sutherland, Michèle Choinière, the Wind That who have not yet skied or biked at Millstone. The Shakes the Barley, the Catamount Pipe Band, Bread and mostly mellow trail system includes Harrington Ridge, Puppet Theater, and many more, with Vermont Public Radio which is at the top of Bicycling magazine’s list of the host Robert Resnik as MC. Saturday, June 23, 2-11 p.m. at 10 best mountain-biking trails in Vermont. It follows a Millstone Hill in Barre Town. $15; $40 per family; $10 extra spine of white granite thrusting up along a mossy track. for nighttime FireWalk. Tickets at 476-8188 or barreoperahouse.org. rockfirevt.com The Bicycling blurb and other publicity have been
COURTESY OF ROC KFIRE
illstone Hill, a mountain-biking and crosscountry-skiing center in Barre Town, is staging an event this Saturday that organizers promise will produce “an experience never before found in Vermont.” ROCKFIRE, billed as an “elemental” celebration, has been timed to coincide with the summer solstice. Think pagan festival: Bonfires will blaze, musicians will sing and strum, and costumed dancers will cavort as revelers feast on victuals brought to or prepared at the site. Throw in water candles and sky lanterns, and it just might amount to a midsummer night’s dream. This good time also serves a good cause. Ticket proceeds will go toward MILLSTONE TRAILS ASSOCIATION’S $100,000 share of a $1.3 million purchase of land from ROCK OF AGES, the granite company that owns a 400-acre portion of the 1500-acre trail network. The Trust for Public Land, a national preservation group, has raised most of the funds needed to complete Millstone Hill’s metamorphosis from a forgotten, postindustrial wasteland into one of New England’s most dramatic and unusual recreation areas. PIERRE COUTURE, head of the MTA and the catalyst for the area’s transformation, says he got the inspiration for the spectacle from attending WaterFire Providence [R.I.], a sound-and-light celebration of that
06.20.12-06.27.12 SEVEN DAYS 22 STATE OF THE ARTS
FESTIVAL 2.0 An explosion of colorful confetti, frozen in time and space above downtown Woodstock. A sea-urchin thing sitting on top of a house. A rotating sculpture spinning in the middle of a covered bridge. At last year’s WOODSTOCK DIGITAL MEDIA FESTIVAL, you could see these artworks — the only catch being that you had to look through the lens of your smartphone, because they weren’t really there. The second annual festival, organized by digitalmedia executive DAVID MCGOWAN, returns this Friday and Saturday at venues all around the picturesque town. The event showcases interactive, digital media from Vermont and beyond, from provocative art exhibits to apps and video games built for social good. It also brings experts in the digital-media field to Vermont to meet with colleagues and the public, according to communications director MARY HAWKINS. The festival is a bit of a grab bag — part conference, part art show. You can go out on an “exploration” — take a digital bird walk aided by an app built by Vermont developer GREEN MOUNTAIN DIGITAL; or tour Woodstock and help make it the first town in the country to have its handicapped accessibility mapped. The festival also features a number of panels that delve into innovative forms
COURTESY OF WOODSTOCK DIGITALMEDIA FESTIVAL
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
FESTIVALS
Many of the organizers and participants come from afar, even Europe, but the local tech community is well represented among the participants and exhibitors at the festival. “[The event] draws on national leaders, and there are some of those national leaders located here in Vermont,” Hawkins says. For example, the gaming-for-good panel features representatives from the CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE EMERGENT MEDIA CENTER and from TILTFACTOR, a game research laboratory located across the river at Dartmouth College. “It’s interesting that a festival like this happens in Vermont,” Hawkins says. “We don’t think of Vermont as a place where digital media is cutting edge, but there are these things going on.” T Y L ER M A C HA D O
of nonfiction storytelling and socially responsible video gaming, and explore how the digital revolution is happening in Vermont (Seven Days online editor CATHY RESMER will moderate that last panel). Digital art will be on display, with a group show ruminating on the “micro” theme at the ARTISTREE GALLERY and a farmers-market-type exhibition on the Woodstock town green.
WOODSTOCK DIGITAL MEDIA FESTIVAL 2012 Friday and Saturday, June 22 and 23, in Woodstock. The festival kicks off on Friday night with an art exhibition reception at the Artistree Gallery, 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. Most Saturday events are free and open to the public. The Saturday-evening gala at the BILLINGS FARM AND MUSEUM is ticketed, and some events are invite-only. Info and preregistration at woodstockdigital.com.