Friday, June 5
VIRTUAL WILDLIFE FESTIVAL: Due to social distancing requirements, instead of a one-day Wildlife Festival on Sunday, May, 31st, Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park will be hosting a Wildlife Week. Each day through June 6th, the Wilton Preserve will premiere a short video or host a live event that is based on the in-person events that would have taken place at the annual festival at Camp Saratoga. These will premiere daily at 10 a.m. on the Wilton Preserve’s Facebook page and the videos will be posted to its YouTube channel. The Festival Week will include an Aquatic Freshwater Wildlife Exploration Video from Delegan Pond on Friday, June 5; and a National Trails Day Trail Highlight Video on Saturday, June 6. For more information please call the Preserve & Park office at 518-450-0321 or visit the website at www. wiltonpreserve.org. BLOOD DRIVE: An American Red Cross Blood Drive will be held from noon to 6 p.m. on Friday, June 5 at the Saratoga Springs City Center at 522 Broadway in Saratoga Springs. More information is available online at www.redcrossblood.org. CANDIDATE FORUM: The League of Women Voters of Saratoga County will film a candidate forum with N.Y. State Senate District 49 democratic primary candidates Thearse McCalmon and Donovan McRae. The video will be posted on the League’s website, lwvsaratoga.org, on June 5. LWVSC is requesting questions in advance from the community. Please send questions to vslwvsc@gmail.com with Senate 49 primary in the subject line by June 3. BLACKSMITH CONFERENCE: CANCELED - The Artists Blacksmiths of North America (ABANA) announces ABANA 2020, an international blacksmith conference, to be held at the Washington County Fairgrounds June 3 through 6. The conference will showcase more than 40 renowned blacksmiths demonstrating in 11 areas including art, power, perios, tools, knives, a 21 forge teaching area, a youth teaching area, farriers, The Patient Order of Meticulous Metalsmiths, a demonstration area with smiths from the Czech Republic. A farm blacksmithing demonstration area will be open to the public and free of charge. There will be blacksmithing competitions, lectures, a gallery of fine ironwork, an auction, family craft programs, tours, vendors tailgating and tool raffles. For more information and registration visit ABANA2020.com. BALLOON FESTIVAL: CANCELED - The Cambridge Valley balloon festival committee has canceled this year’s festival. After much discussion and with very heavy hearts, we have made the very difficult decision to cancel the Cambridge Valley balloon festival this year. We will celebrate our 20th anniversary with the June 4-6, 2021 festival. We fully understand the impact this will have on our community as we are aware the balloon festival serves as most of the communities largest fundraiser of the year. Not that we are not hopeful the state of New York and our country will be back up and running by June, our very generous sponsors will not be in a position to support us this year as their businesses have suffered. We have said many times in the past, sponsors are what makes this happen and we cannot do it without them! Please stay tuned throughout the year for updates on our Facebook page, our website and in press releases for dates on our artists/poster unveiling and pre-sales of our 20th anniversary official merchandise. Please stay healthy and safe as we get through these trying times together! 20⁄20 MUSICAL VISIONARIES: CANCELED - Friday, June 5, 7:30 pm, Opera Saratoga Preview - Experience the magic of Opera Saratoga, featuring music from Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and Beecher and Muscovitch’s New York premiere, Sky on Swings. Tickets: $35 at TheSembrich.org/tickets. This event is part of The Sembrich 2020 Summer Festival and will take place at The Sembrich, 4800 Lake Shore Dr. in Bolton Landing. ILIUM LITERARY CLUB: CANCELED - Due to CDVID-19 , the Ilium Literary Club of Troy is the June 5th Annual Luncheon. If you have suggestions on speakers/presenters for our 2020 - 2021 yearbook, please call Barbara at 518-274-2949.