Celebrating the ‘Big 4-0’
Milestone year for a city staple... Autumnfest
WOONSOCKET — As recently as seven years ago, Cheryl Savaria couldn’t find Woonsocket on a map. A resident of Warren, she didn’t know where Woonsocket was, she’d never had a bite of dynamite, and she had never heard of Autumnfest.
“I had no idea where Woonsocket was,” Savaria, the wife of Autumnfest Steering Committee Chair Richard Savaria said. “When we were first dating, I’d ask if I had to pack a lunch” to get from her home in Warren to Woonsocket.
But now, not only does Cheryl Savaria know where Woonsocket is – and yes, she’s since tried dynamite and she describes it as “phenomenal, spicy, zhooshy, spiced-up” – she’s a member of the Steering Committee which helps to organize the annual Autumnfest celebration.
Savaria recalled her first Autumnfest and where she believes the annual Columbus Day weekend gathering is trending, as the festival on Saturday morning was mere moments away from kicking off with an opening ceremony.
“My first year, I was a monitor at the reviewing stand to detour traffic,” she recalled of the 2011 Autumnfest. “By the next year, I was onto the committee … The committee is very dynamic, (Autumnfest) is still based on community. I’ve seen the park grow and evolve with vendors and rides, it’s definitely a community-based festival and fair.”
“Northern Rhode Island is beautiful, just as beautiful as the East Bay,” she said, as she’s since relocated from Warren to North Smithfield. “The whole state is beautiful, but northern Rhode Island is very diverse and it’s very beautiful up here.”
Now in its 40th year, Autumnfest is far more than an opportunity to dine on cuisine from local restaurants or purchase wares from vendors who descend upon Woonsocket. It’s become an annual celebration of community and of Woonsocket’s past, present, and future.
Autumnfest kicked off on Saturday morning, just as it has since the late 1970s, as the annual Columbus Day weekend celebration once again drew thousands to the city. Many traditions continued at Autumnfest as they have in years past, including the food court, children’s rides, the beer tent, and the consumer showcase.
When Roger Begin, one of the founders of Autumnfest, hearkens back to the first festival in 1978, he shows a sense of pride in where the celebration has been and where it’s going.
The first Autumnfest emanated from a “germ” of an idea following a bicentennial celebration at the Woonsocket Harris Public Library in 1976. Begin said he had an “epiphany,” that there was an appetite in the city for a fall fete that would bring people together and showcase downtown Woonsocket.
“What a great occasion to bring people together,” Begin recalled. “The community, its history, diversity. The germ of the idea was of creating something.”
After selecting committee members, the public enthusiastically responded to the idea and organizations provided the initial funding to help the first Autumnfest get off its feet. But Begin admits that when the days started ticking down to Columbus Day weekend in 1978, he started to wonder whether people would care.
“They did,” he said. “It’s been amazing to think about … I remember being at the 25th (anniversary) and thinking ‘Wow!’”
“From that first morning, we were wondering if anyone would show up. It rained the night before, the weather was uncertain, and there was a sparse turnout for the opening ceremony. But after that, the park filled up at every entrance,” he said from inside World War II Veterans Memorial Park. “That’s when we said, ‘We did it.’”
Within an hour that morning, Begin said, he was on the phone, doubling the request for fireworks to ensure that they would put on “one hell of a show for the city.”
Cumberland resident and Steering Committee member Michael Dubois was 16 years old when he attended the first festival back in 1978. He said he made the trip to World War II Veterans Memorial Park because he was excited about a gathering of community and the opportunity to spend the day with family, friends, and people he hadn’t seen in some time.
“It was fantastic because the community never had anything like this...” Dubois said. “It’s come so far, from the organization to the quality of product on stage, the food court, the vendors.”
The Rotary Club is hosting its Autumnfest 5K race behind the beer garden on East School Street at 10 a.m. this morn- ing. Today at Autumnfest will also bring Emily Luther and a band she has put together to the Main Stage from 7 to 9 p.m. and her headliner act will run into the fireworks display at 9 p.m.
Monday’s Columbus Day activities will start with the 10-division Autumnfest parade featuring a special tribute to D-Day in the first division, and a line up of bands including the Dartmouth High School Band, New England High School Champions, the 88th Army Band, and area bands including the Woonsocket High School and Middle School bands, Mount St. Charles Academy Marching Band, North Smithfield High School, Cumberland High School, Burrillville High School, Douglas High School and the BMR Marching Band, as well as the Icabod Crane “Riders” Marching Band, and the R.I. Firefighters Pipes and Drum Band.
After the parade, the last full day of Autumnfest will continue in World War II Veterans Memorial Park where visitors will find great food, craft booths, a community business showcase and, of course, more stage entertainment.