Georgetown Art Crawl, Farmer Foodie festival set Sept. 13

The 2015 Historic Georgetown Art Crawl will be held in conjunction with the Sixth Annual Farmer and Foodie Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 13, downtown Georgetown. This is a rain-or-shine juried art event, and will feature artists and artisans, and area art leagues and art guilds from throughout the Cape Region.

Started by Bruce and Chuck Mead-e, owners of the Upper Crust Coffee Shop and Donna and Charlie Koskey of Chardon Jewelers in Georgetown, the inaugural art crawl was held in 2013, with over 40 participating artists. “We have great expectations that this year’s art crawl will continue to grow in both vendor participation and customer attendance,” said Georgetown Chamber Executive Director Karen Duffield. Artists’ specialties that will be on display include photography, watercolor, jewelry design, wood carving and mixed-media creations.

The Annual Farmer and Foodie Festival celebrates local farmers and creates awareness of their farm-fresh foods and food products as well as their culinary and artistic talents. The hope is that through these types of events, sustainable relationships will form between farmer and customer, and artisanal food and products will be valued over any others. Farmer and Foodie vendor participation is limited to farmers, producers and artisans selling their homemade products; resale of manufactured products is not permitted.

The brainchild of Lynn Lester of The Brick Hotel, the Farmer and Foodie Festival has progressively grown in attendance and popularity since it was first held in 2010. Last year's festival, held jointly with the Historic Georgetown Art Crawl, spurred an estimated 1,000 people to attend. In addition to farm vendors, there will be hayrides, pumpkin painting, horse and carriage rides, and other kid-friendly activities planned.

Featured for the first time at the Farmer and Foodie Festival will be "Peter Rabbit’s Misadventures in Farmer McGregor’s Garden," an educational puppet show presented by volunteers of Sussex County Master Gardeners. Children will learn bits of botany, agriculture, food culture, nutrition and entomology while being entertained by and interacting with Peter Rabbit, and other visitors to Farmer McGregor's garden. Three 30-minute performances will be scheduled throughout the day.

“The purposeful blending of a distinctly cultural program with a rural one is unique, and can be a great stimulus to economic development,” said Duffield. “It brings our town special exposure and attracts a greater and more diverse market of visitor and consumer to Georgetown.”

For more information regarding the two events, contact the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce at 302-856-1544 or email info@georgetowncoc.com.