July 3rd Festival Spectacular! Food Truck Festival and Parade Performer Highlights

Jun 30 2022

Montpelier’s July 3rd Celebration is centered around community, food, and fun! Walking to the State House lawn alongside groups of other festival-goers is an experience unto itself. From a distance, you can see the food trucks lined up on State Street and you can hear musicians on the Main Stage. Excitement builds as spectators await the joyous parade at 6:15pm.

At the State Street Food Festival, more than 30 amazing vendors–open from 2-10pm– offer a mouth-watering variety of food and beverage, plus all your celebration essentials like glow sticks and face paint.

It’s a new year, and there are new faces on State Street vendor row. We've got Maudite Poutine, Friday's Harvest Bakery, and YUM! The name says it all! Returning favorites this year include The Blooming Onion, Woodbelly Pizza, The Melted Chesiere, and Mo's Backyard BBQ.

What would a summer festival be without something to cool you down? Get delicious ice cream from Sisters of Anarchy and Kingdom Creamery of Vermont. Washing down all that food with an ice cold lemonade from Joan Peters Lemonade stand.

Not all of our vendors at the July 3rd Celebration are all about food...for fun glow sticks, and other light up goodies, check out returning favorite Kai Chi Gifts. Looking to get a little festive for the evening? Check out Vermont Face and Body for face painting and henna tattoos.

After getting some food from our vendors, kick off Montpelier’s Independence Day parade with Vermont’s fastest mile! This classic one-mile race runs through historic downtown Montpelier in front of thousands of spectators – then stick around after the race for the parade and fireworks on the State House lawn. All ages are welcome at the race – kids encouraged to run. Visit https://www.runreg.com/montpelier-mile to register for the race. 

Whether you’re marching or watching, the July 3rd Parade is Montpelier’s must-see event of the year! We are excited to bring quality entertainment to this year's line up, including annual favorite Catamount Pipe Band. Catamount Pipe Band is New England’s premier pipe band, drawing a diverse group of dedicated musicians from Vermont, neighboring states and beyond. Also featured in this year's parade is local favorite All Together Now, with their giant peaceful puppets and glow of Hope, this year's parade theme. This July 3rd, experience something you’ve never experienced before, as Big Nazo and Providence Drum Troupe join forces for an out-of-this-world spectacle! Big Nazo features giant go-go dancing monsters, mischievous mountain trolls, bizarre extra-terrestrials, and hilarious human-animal hybrids who take turns invading stages and street corners  while Intergalactic Zoo-Keepers and Mad Scientists weave cosmic tales of ridiculous wonder. Providence Drum Troupe is composed of musicians, acrobats, life-size alien puppets, hoopers, lasers and dancers from near and far who create funky beats.

Other featured parade performers include Hanaford's Fife and Drum Corps, the Mt. Sinai Go-Karts, and two West African music and dance performers, Jeh Kulu and Montpelier's own Shidaa Projects.

This year’s special celebration is not one to miss. After two years off, July 3rd in Montpelier is back with a blast! We expect it to be just what we all need at this moment in history.

See you there!
 

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