If you live in the Mad River Valley, or hey maybe if you’ve been visiting on a Thursday over the last month, you’ve probably heard about Round Up Revival: the bringing back of an old favorite community event, Round Up At The River, and transforming it into a bigger celebration of community.
As someone both heavily involved in the community through my job, but also as a 15 year resident now raising a family here, I wanted nothing more than to see this event succeed. Since the Round Up At The River ended several years ago, it always felt like something was missing in the MRV summer.
I wasn’t able to make it to the first one, but by all accounts it vastly exceeded expectations with turnout in the 300-400 range. My family headed down the following week only for it to get cancelled when thunderstorms rolled through. Granted, the blackberry mojito I grabbed before the the cancelation was still delicious.
But finally, the following week with friends from out of town visiting we made it down on a sunny Thursday evening. What I saw filled me with joy. We were one of the first to arrive, but a steady stream of people continued to flow in for hours, leading to another several hundred attendees all out to enjoy food, drink, music, conversation, and community partners. I saw so many familiar faces and had so many great conversations; it really did feel like the ultimate community event we had been missing. What a joy.
I understand it might seem like I’m overstressing the importance of a simple event, but I really do believe it’s things like this that help foster a strong community, build relationships, and give everyone an easy outlet at the end of the day to enjoy sights and sounds with others. Sociology likes to touch on the importance of the “Third place”, that is to say somewhere different than home and work. This event is now perfectly filling that roll. I’m wishing nothing but the best for the rest of these moving forward.
Of course, I’d be remiss to not mention that these things don’t just happen on their own. While Sugarbush did help out with some of the planning, promotion, and sponsorship, the absolute real credit goes to Josh Turka and his team at 5th Quarter Butcher & Provisions. Josh was the catalyst for reviving this event, and I’m so glad that he and his team were willing to take this on. Beyond that, DOB Productions has been key in securing incredible music acts each week, and a number of awesome food vendors and sponsors have also joined in the fun. You can check out the full list of music, vendors, and partners here.
So even if you’re not a fulltime resident, consider extending a weekend stay into Thursday night, just to soak in the Round Up Revival. Make some friends, listen to some tunes, partake in Vermont food and libations, and you’ll feel like a true part of this community in no time.
Hope to see you there.