'Artisans Night', Festival Fleshed Out

The Barrington Business Association put some meat on the bones of two events coming up down the road at its monthly meeting Tuesday night, May 8.

Beginning on the last Thursday in July, the merchants’ group will launch an “Artisans Night” to showcase local artists and their works.

Artists will be invited to set up shop in Barrington stores from 7 to 9 pm in an attempt to attract customers for their works and the host stores.

“Artisans Night” will then continue through October on the last Thursday in each month until the fall. Final details will be worked out over the next few weeks.

A date for a “Fall Festival” was finalized. It will be held on Oct. 13.

The festival will center around Barrington’s town hall, library and senior center with merchants setting up booths and displays.

At the same time, a hayride scavenger hunt will take potential customers to participating stores. Attendees will ride to and from stores in the hay wagon. At each store, they will pick up a clue or riddle in an effort to collect a prize at the end of the ride.

The business group also will create a “haunted senior center” for children and adults to get a scare. The high school drama club will be asked to collaborate with the merchants to create the haunted house.

“There are a lot of closets and other spaces in the senior center,” said Holly Smith of Hollies on the Avenue, co-president of the business association. “We think it will be a great spot.”

Details on the festival will be fleshed out further over the next few months. Stay tuned.

Also stay tuned for the first-ever map of merchants that is designed to help put Barrington on the map for tourists and other visitors to town. It is expected to arrive for distribution by mid-May.

The fold-up map will pinpoint local merchants. It will be distributed to local realtors, hotels, stores, bed and breakfasts, the East Bay Chamber of Commerce, Barrington town hall and the public library.