Let’s Celebrate!
The Mansfield Downtown Partnership invites area residents and visitors to gather in Downtown Storrs on Saturday, September 24 for a day full of music, food, and fun at its 19th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival! The Festival will take place from 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM on and around Betsy Paterson Square. This event is free and open to everyone!
The E. O. Smith Drumline will kick off the festivities at 2:00 PM on Betsy Paterson Square with a dynamic performance. They will be followed by their fellow Panthers the E. O. Smith Chamber Singers to help mark the opening of the event.
E. O. Smith Drumline will kick off the festivities at 2:00 PM
Kidsville Kuckoo Revue performs at 2:30 PM in the Kids’ Zone
Mansfield businesses and community organizations and UConn departments, programs, and student groups will offer a variety of hands-on fun for all ages at over sixty activity booths, which will be open from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Dog Lane, Royce Circle, and Wilbur Cross Way.
Also open during that time will be craft booths featuring the work of area crafters, makers, and artisans as part of the Juried Craft Show. Craft booths will be open on Dog Lane and will have items available for purchase by the public.
On Wilbur Cross Way, there will be a variety of entertainment especially for children in the Kids’ Zone! In addition to activities just for kids, don’t miss performances by the Mansfield Academy of Dance (2:15 PM) and Kidsville Kuckoo Revue (2:30 PM) as well as Pete Haddad’s Hubba Bubba Magic Show (3:30 PM and 5:30 PM) and “An Hour of Clown” with Anthony Sellitto (4:30 PM).
New this year will be an Electric Vehicle Showcase with vehicles presented by EV Club of CT and Eastern Connecticut Green Action. The showcase will be open from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM on Wilbur Cross Way. Visitors can meet local electric vehicle owners, get an up-close look at their cars, and ask about the ins and outs of electric vehicle ownership.
Another new feature is the Scarecrow Decorating Contest! Scarecrows will be on display around the Festival. Vote for your favorite creation at the Mansfield Downtown Partnership’s booth; the top three vote-getters will receive prizes. There is no cost to enter, but registration is required. The deadline to sign up to be a part of the contest is Friday, Sept. 16.
Another outlet for creative talent were the annual free Community Puppet-Building Workshops the Partnership co-sponsors with the Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry. This year’s workshops took place Saturday, Sept. 17 and Sunday, Sept. 18 at the Ballard Institute.
Workshop participants created larger-than-life puppets, with which they will perform in the Fancy Frog Festival Puppet Pond Pageant at the Celebrate Mansfield Festival at 2:30 PM on Betsy Paterson Square
The Fancy Frog Festival Puppet Pond Pageant will take place at 2:30 PM on Betsy Paterson Square
Cooking demos will take place at 2:30 PM & 3:30 PM on Dog Lane
Learn new culinary techniques during cooking demos by award-winning chefs from UConn Dining Services. The demos will be at 2:30 PM and 3:30 PM on Dog Lane.
With your fresh inspiration from the demos, head over to Storrs Farmers Market to stock up on late summer produce and early fall favorites. Or, pick up some ready-to-eat treats and enjoy a locally-sourced picnic on the Square. The Market will be open from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM at Town Hall.
For some active fun, head to the Square at 3:00 PM for a demo and dancing with UConn Swing & Blues! UConn Swing & Blues is a student organization that welcomes all members of the greater community to learn and dance together. The group will lead a brief lesson on the lawn and then open it up for dancing. Everyone is welcome to join in!
The UConn Jazz Quartet will take to the stage at 4:00 PM following the dancing. UConn Jazz Studies is a rigorous, performance-oriented program. Students enrolled in the program study the music of past generations while consciously striving to create music which is relevant to today.
Throughout the full event, food booths will be open on Royce Circle and Bolton Road Ext., with a variety of tasty treats to keep you fueled up for fun. Additionally, there are nearly two dozen downtown restaurants featuring a variety of cuisines from around the globe, all within a five-minute walk of Betsy Paterson Square. Stop by you favorite dining destination or try something new - Jefferson Fry Company (9 Dog Lane) and Brooklyn Dumpling Shop (1 Royce Circle) have both recently opened and offer fun twists on classic dishes!
The Celebrate Mansfield Festival is a low-waste event. Throughout the Festival site, visitors will find waste stations featuring receptacles for composting, recycling, and trash. All participants, visitors, and volunteers are encouraged to help in reducing waste at this event and to sort their waste into the appropriate receptacle. Volunteers will be at the stations to help answer questions and guide sorting.
As part of the low-waste efforts, our Festival food booths will have reusable utensils available. Please return these utensils to the wash bins at the waste stations. Partnership staff and volunteers will clean the used utensils and store them for future events - another way to help reach low-waste goals!
Braiden Sunshine performs at 5:00 PM on Betsy Paterson Square
At 5:00 PM, enjoy a performance by Connecticut’s own Braiden Sunshine on the main stage at Betsy Paterson Square!
After performing in bands since the age of 9, Braiden auditioned and chose to become part of Team Gwen on Season 9 of NBC's #1 rated television show, The Voice. Through his performances he garnered the love of America and was voted by the 15 million viewer audience through 9 of the 10 levels of competition making it all the way through to the semi-final round and gaining millions of fans around the world.
Braiden has been performing and writing his own music since his appearance on The Voice. He has two EPs out and has completed a 30-city tour across the continental US.
Braiden recently graduated from UConn, and the Partnership is happy to welcome him back to town!
At 6:00 PM, everyone is invited to grab some dinner and head to Betsy Paterson Square for our closing concert featuring Argonaut & Wasp!
Argonaut & Wasp formed over a love for house/dance music while living in Burlington, VT among a thriving jam scene, of which they never really fit in. Since moving to Brooklyn in 2015, they have been finding inspiration from the city itself and the different vibrant scenes within it. Their sound has developed into an amalgamation of the rhythm and energy from house music, cues from the jam/funk scene, and their love for the “leave everything on the table” attitude of NYC.
Argonaut & Wasp released their debut album, Starlight 99, in 2021 and have been on the move ever since, touring nationally with a stop at the famed Troubadour in Los Angeles, an appearance at SXSW in Austin, and sold-out shows coast to coast. This summer, they performed as part of Two Roads Brewing Company’s Road Jam Music Fest in Stratford, CT and at the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts in Westport, CT.
Music from Starlight 99 has been featured in ads for Absolut Vodka and the watchOS 8 for Apple Watch as well as on the hit Netflix show Never Have I Ever. Spotify listeners have streamed their songs over 8.8 million times.
Argonaut & Wasp will perform from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM on the stage of the Jeffrey P. Ossen Family Foundation Pavilion on Betsy Paterson Square.
Limited seating is available on the Square. You are welcome to bring a blanket or a lawn chair.
Please note: Alcohol and tobacco products (including all vaping) are prohibited on the Square.
The Mansfield Downtown Partnership produces the Celebrate Mansfield Festival each fall with the support of our generous sponsors. The 2022 Platinum Sponsors are Barnes & Noble UConn; Gulemo Printers, Inc.; The Oaks on the Square; and Wilcox & Reynolds.
The Partnership thanks its 2022 Gold Sponsors: Town of Mansfield; University of Connecticut; E. O. Smith High School; Mansfield OB/GYN Associates; Merchants of Storrs Center; M&T Bank; NICABM; Price Chopper; and WILI.
The 2022 Silver Sponsors are The Adventure Park at Storrs; Berkshire Bank; Casella Waste Systems; Cipparone & Zaccaro, P.C.; Design Center East; Hops 44; LAZ Parking; Renewal by Andersen; UConn Foundation; and Weichert Realtors, Four Corners Real Estate. The Partnership thanks these businesses for their support of our community!
The Celebrate Mansfield Festival is free and open to everyone.
For more information, please visit downtownstorrsfestival.org or call the Mansfield Downtown Partnership (860.429.2740).