Blueberry Fields Music Festival

The SCCA will hold the second annual Blueberry Fields Music Festival, August 2-3, 2008, at Berry Fields Farm. The 2007 festival presented five musical acts, playing throughout the day Saturday, and a free Family Day with recorded music on Sunday.

The coming festival will expand the live music into Sunday, which will be reserved for young singer/songwriters and acoustic musicians from Sullivan County. Saturday will focus on bluegrass, folk and acoustic acts from throughout the Endless Mountains.

A Blueberry Festival had been held at Berry Fields Farm for the previous three years, under the auspices of Farm owners Charlie and Barbara Gerlach. For 2007, the Gerlachs asked the Arts Council to take over and turn the festival into a major showcase for area musicians, while continuing the focus on "all things blueberry."

As in the past, there was - and will be - blueberry ice cream, blueberry products and blueberry-themed items from the Gerlachs store, plus other blueberry products cooked up by volunteers. The Gerlachs' donkey ("our most intelligent animal," says Barbara) ducklings and goats came down the hill for petting and admiration. Visitors wandered the rambling field of blueberry bushes for pick-your-own.

What sets the Blueberry Fields Music Festival apart from other "blueberry festivals" is both the natural setting - a spectacular mountainside view that can reach 25 miles on a clear day - and the down-to-earth reality of Barbara and Charlie's efforts. Not a commercial event that happens to feature blueberries, it is a joyous celebration of a life well-lived. Barbara's periodic tours of the farm feature close encounters with the farm animals.

Berry Fields Farm is a unique setting for a festival of any kind. Based on the principles of sustainable agriculture, it has been developed through the almost inconceivable industry and dedication of the Gerlachs. Starting with little more than a home and a wooded hillside, they have cleaned acres of land to raise an ever-expanding garden of organic produce, fruit trees, cows, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and that donkey.

With his other pairs of hands, Charlie (a registered architect) has constructed a bed and breakfast that sleeps ten, a small store and restaurant, a barn and a scattering of outbuildings, while Barbara, also in Shiva mode, maintains the garden and store, hosts the restaurant and builds stone walls. For leisure, they bake bread and pies.

Come to the festival this August 2-3 for an experience you can only find in the Endless Mountains.