There’s a moment every Vermont summer when the dirt road dust settles, a brass band starts up somewhere in a field, and you realize you’d happily drive an hour and a half for this. For me it was a Sunday in Glover, sitting on a grassy hillside watching papier-mâché beasts the size of pickup trucks lurch across a field while a sourdough rye loaf got passed down the row. I’d come for the spectacle. I stayed because it felt like the whole point of moving to Vermont was sitting right there in front of me.
Summer here doesn’t announce itself with one big event. It’s spread out, town by town, weekend by weekend, often down a road your GPS isn’t fully sure about. The festivals worth the drive are rarely the ones with the biggest billboards. They’re the ones a neighbor mentions in passing, the kind you only really learn by living here a while.
We’re past the early-June stretch now, so a few of the season’s headliners have already come and gone. The good news is that the back half of a Vermont summer is arguably the better half. Here’s what’s still ahead, the ones I tell people about when they ask what makes a Vermont summer feel like a Vermont summer.
What summer festivals are still happening in Vermont this year?
Plenty, and the timing actually works in your favor. The festivals clustered into late June, July, and August tend to be the slower, more rooted ones, less polished and more local. If you’re new to the state, or still in the daydreaming phase of relocating to Vermont, these are the ones that teach you the most about the place.
You learn which towns show up big, which crowds skew local versus tourist, and how far Vermonters will genuinely travel for a good time. (Further than you’d think. Distance here is measured in scenery, not minutes.)
Vermont Renaissance Faire in Essex Junction
The closest one on the calendar is the Vermont Renaissance Faire, June 27 and 28 at the Champlain Valley Exposition. This is its tenth year, and from what I hear it’s shaping up to be the biggest one yet, with knights, pirates, fairies, jousting, mead makers, and food from local chefs.
It’s silly in the best way, and kids lose their minds over it. There’s a whole encampment to wander, plenty of shade, and enough going on that nobody gets bored. If you’ve got family visiting in late June, this is an easy yes.
West Burke Strawberry Festival
The same weekend, way up in the Northeast Kingdom, the West Burke Strawberry Festival takes over the village park on June 26. It’s about as wholesome as a Vermont evening gets. Shortcake, barbecue, live music, dancing, and a few hundred of your soon-to-be neighbors.
These hometown festivals are where you start recognizing faces, which is a quiet milestone when you’re new here. The drive up Route 5A alone is worth the trip.
Are Vermont summer festivals good for families?
Most of them, yes, and that’s not an accident. A lot of these events grew out of small-town agricultural traditions, so kids running around in the grass is the default setting, not a disruption.
The Renaissance Faire and the Strawberry Festival both land squarely in family territory. But the one I’d build a whole afternoon around is Bread and Puppet up in Glover.
Bread and Puppet Circus in Glover
This is my favorite, the one that converts people. Bread and Puppet Theater runs its Circus and Pageant every Sunday from July 19 through August 31 at the farm in Glover, starting at 3 in the afternoon. Tickets are fifteen dollars, and no one gets turned away for lack of funds, which tells you most of what you need to know about the spirit of the thing.
It’s part circus, part protest, part something older than both. Stilt dancers, a loud and joyful brass band, giant puppets that manage to be funny and unsettling at once. Afterward they serve their famous rye bread with aioli, and you can browse the Cheap Art press for posters and pamphlets. The drive up Route 122 is half the experience, all rolling farmland and the kind of quiet that makes the show land harder when it starts.
It runs rain or shine, kids welcome, dogs tolerated if they behave. Pack water, since there’s none on site, and settle in.
Which Vermont festivals are worth a longer road trip?
A few are worth pointing the car a real distance for. Vermont is small, but a drive from the Kingdom down to the southern border still eats a good chunk of your day, so these are the ones I’d build a trip on.
Vermont Brewers Festival in Burlington
Mid-July brings the Vermont Brewers Festival to the Burlington waterfront, July 17 and 18. It’s been running for decades now, and it’s the rare beer festival actually put on by the brewers themselves. Dozens of Vermont breweries, over a hundred beers, live music, food trucks, and Lake Champlain going gold behind it all as the sun drops toward the Adirondacks.
If you want to feel the Burlington version of Vermont lifestyle in one evening, this is a strong contender. Walk it, bike it, or grab a rideshare, but don’t drive yourself home from this one.
Best of Vermont Summer Festival in Ludlow
Down in Ludlow, the Best of Vermont Summer Festival lands August 22 and 23 out at Okemo Field, eleven to five each day. Two days of music, artisans, cheese and maple makers, and craft beverage producers. It’s a tidy crash course in everything the state is proud of, which makes it a smart stop if you’re still figuring out the geography and the culture.
New World Festival in Randolph
And right at the seam between summer and fall, the New World Festival takes over downtown Randolph on September 6. It’s Vermont’s big Celtic and Québécois music celebration, more than thirty years deep now, with a dozen-plus acts across five stages, called dances, and street performers. Kids under twelve get in free.
The sound of it spilling through a small downtown is something else. If you’ve got Maritime or French-Canadian roots, it hits somewhere tender.
Why do people move to Vermont after a summer like this?
I get asked some version of this a lot, usually by someone who came up for a long weekend and felt something they didn’t expect. The honest version of why people move to Vermont is rarely about a single festival. It’s about the accumulation.
It’s the realization that an entire town will turn out for a strawberry shortcake. That a theater company will hand you free bread after a show about the state of the world. That the drive between two events is so consistently beautiful you stop minding the distance.
Summer is when Vermont makes its best argument, and it keeps making it well past the Fourth of July. The festivals are scattered, sometimes inconvenient, often down a road you’ve never heard of. That’s the feature, not the flaw. They reward people willing to go a little out of their way, which, come to think of it, describes most of the folks who end up staying.
I still drive up to Glover most summers. The bread tastes the same, the puppets are different every year, and the field is always full of people who, like me, decided the drive was the point.
Shop Green Mountain Peaks on Etsy
Bring a little piece of Vermont into your home with our curated collection of gifts, apparel, and seasonal favorites. From cozy hoodies and crewnecks to Vermont-themed gift boxes and cookbooks, each item is designed to celebrate the Green Mountain spirit.
- Vermont-inspired designs and gift sets
- Printed and packaged with care
- Ships directly to your door
Discover gifts, apparel, and Vermont treasures made to share and enjoy year-round.
Leave a comment