Bread and Puppet joints Northeast Kingdom festival

The 2006 Northeast Kingdom Music Festival will take place Friday and Saturday, Aug. 4-5, at The Chilly Ranch in East Albany. In addition to more than 20 musical and other acts on two stages, the festival will be opened this year by a series of sideshows by the venerable Bread and Puppet Theater of Glover, according to a press release.

Bread and Puppet has been doing it’s version of socio-political street theater on their farm in Glover for over 30 years, and will bring some of their signature sideshows to the Chilly Ranch to open the show at 4 p.m. on Aug. 4.

In addition, Strangers Helping Strangers, a nonprofit organization that conducts food drives at events nationwide, will be collecting donations of canned and non-perishable food at the gate. All of the food collected will go to a local Northeast Kingdom Food Shelf.

The Northeast Kingdom Music Festival, now entering its fourth year, features diverse national, international, regional and local musical acts as well as theater, poetry, circus acts and much more.

Tickets are $65 for a weekend pass in advance and can be purchased online at www.NEKMF.com or in person at The Lake Parker Country Store in West Glover, Pure Pop in Burlington, or The Langdon Street Café in Montpelier. Ticket price includes parking, camping, and well water.

Champlain students design summer bike-safety campaign

BURLINGTON — A new bike-safety campaign has found its way onto city buses and other venues, thanks in part to the work of creative Champlain College students. This summer’s Bike Safe campaign, a joint initiative of the Burlington Bicycle Council and the Burlington Police Department, is aimed at educating bicyclists about safe riding in and around the city, according to a press release.

Bus advertisements, public service announcements on television, bicycle hang tags and screen slides at the Roxy movie theater were all designed and produced by Champlain College Multimedia & Graphic Design students under the direction of Prof. David Lustgarten, a biking enthusiast.

The project was overseen by the Burlington Bicycle Council with coordination by Nicole Losch, bicycle/pedestrian/environmental planner at Burlington’s Department of Public Works. “We’re getting messages out to bicyclists to decrease the number of accidents and confrontations and to really just increase the safety,” Losch said in a statement.

In addition, the Burlington Police are ticketing more bicyclists this summer for things such as running red lights and stop signs. “Over the past year we’ve received numerous complaints about cyclists running stop signs and not yielding to pedestrians on sidewalks,” said Burlington Police Cpl. Phil Small.

Nine city busses are displaying three different Bike Safe posters this summer. Hang tags are also being distributed on bikes by local bike shops, Local Motion and members of Burlington Bicycle Council. The tags include safety information and coupons for $6 off safety gear such as helmets, lights and reflective gear. Thirty-second public service announcements have also been distributed to local television stations and theatergoers are viewing Bike Safe slides before their show.

The bike safety campaign is also supported by Local Motion and the Vermont Bicycle-Pedestrian Coalition. The Champlain College students included Brent Burdick, Jeffrey Foran, Meghan Barrett, Greg Comollo, Patrick McGrail, Matt Parvenski, Hiroko Takikita, Ryan Aubin, Art Farrington, Jack Kubera and Simon Manandhar.

Some safety tips that are shared by the campaign:

• Ride in the same direction as traffic. Wrong-way riding is illegal and a leading cause of collisions with cars.
• Obey all traffic laws including stopping at all stop signs and red lights. Failure to do so can result in a $195 fine and two points.
• Cyclists older than 16 are prohibited from riding on sidewalks in downtown Burlington. Outside of the downtown area, all cyclists must yield to pedestrians.
• Use hand signals to alert drivers to your intentions to turn or stop.
• Wear a properly fitting helmet.
• Use lights and reflective items at night.

Posted July 6, 2006

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