Next month's ‘Plant & Sing’ to feature art, food

Come celebrate local food and foot-stomping music at Sylvester Manor’s fifth annual “Plant & Sing” festival, which will take place over Columbus Day weekend, October 6 and 7 this year. At this two-day-long, family-friendly event, community members will gather to plant and harvest fall crops and transform the fields of the Manor through work, song and dance, recitations and plenty of food events. It’s the community harvest festival tradition made new.

Musical headliners, Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, will be joined by the Gawler Family, the Sun Parade, Lily and the Tigers, Who Dat Loungers, DuneGrass, Island Folk, the Sylvester Manor Worksongers and many more. Literary luminaries will include Silvia Lehrer, the “Art of Cooking” columnist for Dan’s Paper; novelist Esther Freud; poet and playwright Megan Chasky; and the Green Theater Collective, among others.

The festival will also feature a film screening by the Greenhorns, a community of young farmers and activists who are leading the charge for a new generation of foodies, locavores and environmentalists.

Farm events will include garlic planting, a sweet potato harvest, nature hikes, pony rides, sunrise yoga led by Heidi Fokine, a worksong workshop and a contra dance led by the Gawler Family. Food will be provided by chefs and vendors from all over the East End.

General admission tickets are $25; $10 for students; children ages 7 and younger are free. Tickets may be purchased online at plantandsing.com or at the Sylvester Manor farmstand on Manwaring Road. Admission includes on-site parking.

Proceeds from Plant & Sing will fund the Sylvester Manor Educational Farm’s programs, which are intended to connect the community with history, food and culture.

For more information about the festival, call the office at 749-0626.