West Stockbridge is preparing this Saturday's annual Zucchini Festival, a celebration of the versatile green squash.

West Stockbridge will be filled with zucchini on Saturday so don't leave your car unlocked.

WEST STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Zucchini, courgette, summer squash — whatever you call it.  West Stockbridge will be full of the vegetable (or fruit) on Saturday.

Volunteers are busy preparing homemade booths, decorations, games, and more for the annual Zucchini Festival from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The first was held in 2003, ran for a decade, and then went on hiatus until it was brought back last year.

Sponsored by the West Stockbridge Cultural Council, the festival has drawn thousands to the town's center over the years and is a testament to its tight-knit community. Chris Powell, one of the many hands who make it happen, explained that the actual event and the preparations unite people from near and far in a special way.

"It's just a bunch of people coming together when they can and kind of meeting everyone where they're at too, what they can put into it, and it's just super fun in that way," he said.

It will kick off with a pet parade where zucchini costumes are encouraged if temperatures aren't too high. Lucky Bucket will end the night playing classic rock, oldies, country, blues, and soul beneath fireworks.  

In between, attendees can enter a zucchini weigh-off or decorating contest, a "zuck" river race, a baking contest, and a poetry contest among many more. These are said to be "quintessential" to the event.

There will also be a food court with vendors offering one to two zucchini-themed options along with their usual fare. Downtown businesses are also participating.

It is free and for all ages, with tickets for games and activities available for purchase. Powell noted that Zucchini Festival merchandise is cash only.

You may be wondering, "Why zucchini?" There are a few legends about the origin of the festival's mascot — the most amusing involving a car being filled with them.

In the early 2000s, the Cultural Council was looking to host a large community event that brought people together in the downtown but didn't have a theme.

"The legend is like, there is a period of time in the summer in West Stockbridge that if you left your car unlocked, someone would come down and fill it with zucchini and that happened one time after one of these meetings, a local in town went downtown and someone's car was unlocked and it was filled with zucchini, and they came out and they were like, 'You know what, let's do zucchini as the theme,'" Powell said.

"And I also think that there are a number of different reference points and things that just kind of coincided, leading everyone to zucchini."

He added that it is a fun word, an abundant crop, and an easy thing to get creative with. The town also has a history of having Italian and Italian American populations.

Powell's mother, Marjorie Powell, is the lead organizer and he has been involved since the festival's inception. It is a "labor of love" for the community, as it is 100 percent organized and run by volunteers, neighbors, and friends and proceeds go right back into a fund for the event.

"That's one of the things that motivates me to jump back in because it's just an especially unique thing and to be doing all of it around something that's really just for the sake of doing," he said.

"All of the proceeds and everything from the festival, from merchandise and the tickets for the games, go directly back into the Zucchini Festival fund. It's kind of like a thing that is meant to perpetuate itself for the experience of it all."

He said his mother and all the other volunteers put in a great deal of time. There are usually around 100 volunteers behind the event each year.

"My mom is so invested in in the festival being this community event," he added. "She does just an amazing job putting together all these logistics."

The town celebrates its 250th anniversary this year. In 1774, the General Court in Boston passed an act to establish the Town of West Stockbridge after five years of effort and its first town meeting was held on July 4 of that year.

This was kept in mind as Powell made the image for this year's festival, which shows a fossil of the "Archaeozucchini, est. 250 million yrs-old, Early Mesozucchic Period."

Depot Street will be closed from Friday at 6 p.m. through 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. Center Street will be closed from 4:30 to 11 p.m. Free parking will be available at the Town Offices on State Line Road and the Card Pond parking lot on Route 41, and the municipal parking lot next to Main Street with shuttles running every 15-20 minutes.  

A full schedule and more information can be found on wszucchinifest.org.

• Most Read

• Most Comments

• All News

• Blogroll

• Photos