Winter Renaissance Faire returns for sixth year

The Winter Renaissance Faire returns to the Champlain Valley Exposition this weekend, Feb. 4-5, with merriment and fun for the whole family.

In its sixth year, the Winter Renaissance Faire is an event for all ages, featuring a sundry of performance troupes including singers, musicians and dancers, as well as medieval living history and fight demonstrations.

With over 60 artisans and craft vendors — including over a dozen new to the faire — you can discover handcrafted jewelry, woodcrafts, medieval-inspired clothing, leather crafts, swords, armor, mead and more. Patrons can also indulge their appetites with treats from cultures around the world.

The Faire is produced by Vermont Gatherings, a Williston-based company that also puts on the Vermont Renaissance Faire in Stowe, the new Spring Market and the upcoming Vermont Sci-Fi & Fantasy Expo.

Tickets for the Faire are available at the door or online at: https://www.vtgatherings.com/

Kids under 6 get in free. For more information call (802) 778-9178 or email info@ vtgatherings.com.

4.50 4.65

Too frigid to plunge

With subzero temperatures and dangerous windchills predicted in the Champlain Valley on Saturday, the annual Penguin Plunge into Lake Champlain to benefit Special Olympics Vermont has been pivoted to an all remote event.

Derek Libby of the Burlington Fire Department, in consultation with the National Weather Service, advised against holding the event this weekend.

“Participant and spectator safety are of utmost importance and there are significant concerns that these temperatures will present an unsafe environment,” Libby said. “While we wholeheartedly support the efforts of the Penguin Plunge and the great work of Special Olympics Vermont, we share these public safety concerns as a means to protect the participants, spectators and support staff throughout the entire event.”

The event typically attracts nearly 1,000 participants who jump into the lake each February as a fundraiser for Special Olympics Vermont.

For the remote plunge, participants are asked to jump in any time before Feb. 20 and email video to events@vtso.org.

Tickets on sale

The Vermont Flower Show will come to the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction on March 3-5 with a Winnie the Pooh theme — “Out of Hibernation! Spring Comes to the 100-Acre Wood.”

Tickets are on sale at Gardener’s Supply in Williston and Burlington. Tickets will also be available at the door.

Highlights of the Vermont Flower Show include:

• A 15,000-square-foot garden display of flowering bulbs, shrubs, trees and water features.

• Keynote speaker Kelly Norris: “New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden.”

• Live painting by local artists.

• A marketplace with up to 100 vendors.

• Educational seminars and hands-on workshops.

• A plant sale.