Fall harvest festival draws crowds despite threatening weather

By TOM KANE

BETHEL, NY — During the first hour of the Fall Harvest Festival at Bethel Woods, nearly 1,000 people came through the gate on Sunday, September 5, undeterred by the fog and slight drizzle.

“We’re going to take a tally every hour until 3:00 p.m.” said Denise Frangipane, one of the organizers of the festival.

The festival, which will be held between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on six Sundays from September 5 to October 10, is in its sixth year.

“Each Sunday will have a theme,” Frangipane said. This Sunday it was a Quintessence Alpaca Festival with a herd of alpacas corralled next to the spinning wheel and loom of Patricia and Oliver Gillotin of Warwick, NY, owners of the animals who demonstrated their manufacturing method and displayed their attractive goods woven from the fiber of the alpacas.

The Gillotins were doing a brisk business early in the festival with shawls priced between $70 and $160.

Other Sunday themes will be: a children’s festival, a wine festival and chef’s challenge, Earth Day in Autumn, Rustic for the Home and finally a chili day in October.

The festival features locally grown produce and agricultural goods, along with original art and traditional crafts, book signings by local authors, musical entertainment, food, a children’s hay maze and an adult corn field maze.

This week’s author was Nina Burleigh. Other authors will be Michael Pearson, John Marchese, the Upper Delaware Writer’s Collective, Joe Freda and Madeline Kay.

The annual “Gathering of Scarecrows” display and contest will be held for the next five weeks. Area businesses, service clubs, school groups and families are invited to design and exhibit their own scarecrows as part of the festival.

For information about participating in the Fall Festival Craft Village or Scarecrow Contest, call Carol Smith at 845/295-2440.