WILLIAMSTOWN -- Promoting the Village Beautiful is the focus of a group made up of local business owners and community members, who have come together to organize a series of weekend street fairs beginning next month.
Spring, Latham and Water streets are expected to be bustling throughout July with live music, food, artisan vendors, vintage cars and children's activities topped off with outdoor movies at dusk.
"At the very simplest level we just want to celebrate community, a strong sense of community and a strong sense of the vibrancy of downtown," Paula Consolini, coordinator of experiential education at Williams College, said.
She said people got together earlier this year to talk about the need to utilize the downtown and take advantage of local talent.
The idea for four street fairs called "Sundays at Six" came from Williamstown resident Joe Finnegan, and was built on Images Cinema's plans to already show outdoor classic movies on Sunday nights in July, she said.
The series of street fairs will begin on Sunday, July 12 and be held each consecutive Sunday -- July 19, July 26 and Aug. 2. Activities will be spread among Spring, Latham and Water Streets to bring people to all areas of the Village Business District. There will also be live music and theatrical performances on Spring Street.
"Why we're having the community celebration is to energize folks and the downtown, which is kind of quiet on a Sunday," Consolini said.
She said
The activities and music will be followed by drumming circles on Williams College's Chapin Lawn, and the outdoor movies will begin at dusk.
"We're going to be celebrating community at a time when folks feel run down by political and economic events," Consolini said.
While details about the live music are still being finalized, it will feature local musicians covering a variety of genres, including ethnic folk and classical jazz. The movies, which will be at Williams College's Chapin Lawn, include "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" on July 12, "The Princess Bride" on July 19, "Charade" on July 26 and "Superman" on Aug. 2.
A feature at each street fair will be an art walk in which people will follow a path of chalk drawings linking Spring and Water Streets. Consolini said the Williamstown Youth Center is involved in the event, people will be able to add to the drawings, and there will be some trivia questions about what certain drawings represent.
"It's a participatory and attractive chalk walk," she said.
The first 50 children participating in the art walk will get a free piece of 3-D Crayola sidewalk drawing chalk, and everyone else will get a free piece of regular sidewalk drawing chalk, she said.
In addition, there will be opportunities for local groups to raise money at the fairs, Consolini said.
For more information about Sundays at Six, visit www.Sundays
At6.com or contact Judy Giamborino: info@williamstownchamber.com or (413) 458-9077.
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