Vermont Fourth, year one:

It’s Sunday afternoon, and the sun is finally out.  We had to cancel the fireworks Friday night at Burke Mountain, but that’s okay, that just means we get to shoot ‘em off on Saturday, July 18th.

The concert went on at Lyndon State College Saturday evening, under mostly cloudy skies and a brisk north wind that took down the tent that covered the delicious chicken barbecue (see picture below) and continually threatened to drench us all.  It sprinkled, but that’s it, and a small group of very wise music lovers (THE TICKETS WERE FIVE DOLLARS, FOR CRYIN’ OUT LOUD!!!) enjoyed four hours of wonderful music.

That’s Steve Bertrand on the left, he’s the lead singer from the group Avion.  Steve, an L.A. resident, is from Derby Line.  The fellow on the right is Sean McCarthy, a local musician (you’ve seen him perform at the Burke Mountain Music Festival, among other venues) and a longtime friend of Steve’s.

Guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and of course…bagpipes and penny whistles.  From Toronto, Enter The Haggis.

The VFW put on a completely amazing barbeque…$6.50 for dinner!

Only about 100 hearty souls showed up Saturday .  Much of this was weather driven (every single event in New England had lousy attendance on July 4th), but the other reason for the lack of attendance is something I’ve addressed before here…WAY TOO MANY people take things for granted here in the Northeast Kingdom.

Wow,  you missed a great freakin’ concert.   Are you going to show up for the fireworks?  A carload for FIVE DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!

–SN