“WINning” Summer Festival Weekend in Norfolk, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, August 3, 4 and 5

Norfolk, Connecticut, population 1600, is not a town that tends to blow its own horn.  In fact, many who live in this unspoiled hamlet in the Litchfield Hills rather like having their hometown’s New England charm and beautiful surroundings to themselves…but not during the first weekend every August when the organizations of this bucolic hamlet roll out the red carpet to visitors and resident alike.  This year, “A Weekend in Norfolk” on August 3, 4 and 5, offers more than 80 fun filled events, most are free of charge and sure to delight folks of all ages.

On the weekend docket are concerts for every taste from chamber music by the Emerson String Quartet and the Frank Vignola Jazz Trio to Rock Groups and Free Concerts at Robertson Plaza in the center of town sponsored by Infinity Hall.

On all three days, art lovers will enjoy a variety of demonstrations hosted by the Artisans Guild of Norfolk and two art shows, one at the Norfolk Library featuring the work of Turi Rostad, and the 10th Anniversary Exhibition of at the Battell Stoeckel Gallery, that features a variety of work in a multitude of media. A special highlight for art lovers on all three days is the guided tour of the Battell Chapel, at the Church of Christ Congregational featuring the stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Maitland Armstrong.  On Sunday, August 5, two more churches open their doors for tours of their stained glass windows on Saturday and Sunday.

Because of its location, Norfolk is one of the best places in Connecticut to stargaze. If you love astronomy, don’t miss the free Astronomy Night with Matthew Moore Johnson on August 4 starting at 8 p.m. at Dennis Hill State Park on Litchfield Road. Dennis Hill tops out at an elevation of 1627 feet and Norfolk doesn’t have any light pollution, making it an excellent spot to observe the nighttime sky. Before you go stargazing, you can attend a Do-Over Prom for adults, being held in the Botelle School gym, complete with prom king and queen, a photo booth and a great disk jockey.

To “win” an "Icebox of Connecticut t-shirt,” take the six-peak challenge offered by the Norfolk Landtrust by taking a selfie at the peak of all six hiking trails that surround Norfolk.  Trail information is available at the two WINformation centers, one on the Village Green and one inside the Hub downtown.  There is also a trail run taking place at noon on Sunday.

Foodies will enjoy a Farmer’s Market (including a church pie sale) on Saturday, two ice cream socials on Saturday and Sunday, plus a Saturday afternoon downtown food court and special deals and menus at the town’s restaurants all weekend. A special treat on Saturday is a variety of farm tours being offered at Husky Meadows Farm, Lost Ruby Farm, and Broad Field Farm.  This is a great chance to sample their farm to table goodies, literally fresh from the farm!

Make sure to bring the kids!  There are a number of activities that they will enjoy from two old-fashioned ice cream socials, face painting, games and a children’s concert to a kid’s fire hose water soccer game, a special leaf-printing workshop sponsored by Great Mountain Forest, a hand-sewing class with free materials supplied by the Historical Society, a free paint-a-chick and stamping workshop, and Dino’s Funky Puppet Show at the Norfolk Library.  

Sports lovers should head to the Norfolk Curling Club that is offering an open house of their state of the art two-sheet facility.  There will also be a fly-fishing demonstration, two fly tying workshops and a tour of the nine-hole Norfolk Country Club’s Golf Course designed in the late 1920s by A.W. Tillinghast.

If you want to take a breather, Manor House Bed and Breakfast, a stately Tudor Mansion is offering house tours (be sure to check out the Tiffany windows in the dining room) and lemonade on the lawn.  Mountain View Green Retreat is offering a series of three complimentary stations highlighting a different aspect of wellness and rejuvenation from fresh pressed juices to a tea ceremony and healthy food from around the world.

Norfolk’s parks beckon this weekend and every weekend.  An easy trail to the summit of 240-acre Dennis Hill State Park rewards hikers with panoramic views and the observation tower at Haystack Mountain State Park can be reached by auto or a steep climb.  Campbell Falls State Park, a natural reserve area, offers views of the falls tumbling over craggy rock formations.

Visitors who stay overnight will discover some delightful local lodgings like the Blackberry River Inn, a 1761 Colonial; Mountain View Green Retreat, an elegantly restored Victorian; and Manor House, a romantic 1898 Tudor bed, and breakfast inn. 

If the romantic spirit of the town inspires, you can make an appointment on Friday, August 3 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. to be wed or renew your vows on the village green. The town’s first selectman will officiate; flowers, ring bearers and witnesses will be standing by. Please make a reservation (contact info@weekendinnorfolk.org) and, if you’re getting married, bring your license.

Check out the Weekend in Norfolk website www.weekendinnorfolk.org for the most up to date listing of events to plan your day or days of “WINning” fun in Norfolk.

One of Many Ways to Unwind @ WIN - Weekend In Norfolk

Mountain View Green Retreat is situated serenely overlooking the village of Norfolk and has been providing hospitality to visitors for more than one-hundred years.  This magnificent Victorian styled Inn was built in 1890 and, today offers a comfortable world of respite as well as excellent and healthy cuisine to visitors. 

On Sunday, August 5, as part of the Weekend in Norfolk festivities, Mountain View Inn is hosting a series of events and welcomes all festival goers to come by and experience the relaxing elegance of some of the offerings of this time-treasured property themselves.

There will be three complimentary stations set up and running concurrently for guests to experience. At the first station, guests will be greeted with a traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony in which they are the guest of honor!  Against a backdrop of Ancient Asian Cultural Decorations, our Taiwanese friends will delight you with the history and meaning of the various aspects of the ceremony while you are treated to Chinese tea served in the traditional way, using the traditional tea sets, cups, and ceremony. Come to be immersed in the Ancient tradition and culture as if transported back in time and place to China hundreds of years ago.

A second area will feature a variety of complimentary international dishes selected for their health benefits and colorful flavors.  Feel like you are on a cruise around the world as you sample cuisine that stimulates and delights while improving your overall health, energy, and constitution.

Freshly pressed juices are the highlight of the third station that are being offered with your health in mind.  Similar to a wine tasting, a juice tasting allows you to sample a variety of complimentary juice combinations designed to improve and help correct many common health conditions.  There are juices for improving memory, reducing wrinkles, ramping up energy, and detoxing the system.  If you have a specific health condition that you would like to address, we can discuss juice and food combinations that might be of benefit.

Mountain View Green Retreat is located on 67 Litchfield Road in Norfolk.  In addition to offering revitalizing food, the inn offers eight individually decorated rooms and suites. A series of holistic services are also available that includes Reiki and Massage Therapy.

About WIN - Weekend in Norfolk 

A Weekend in Norfolk Connecticut is coming!  Music, art, nature, food, and fun come together for 3 exciting days … Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th!  See weekendinnorfolk.org and choose from 80 events, most of them free! There’s so much to see and do, 3 days might not be enough!  

Musical choices abound throughout the weekend at Infinity Hall, the Yale Music Shed, and live performances downtown. There will be a wide variety of food all weekend long, with something for everyone! 

There’s hiking, a trail run and lots more outdoor events at A Weekend in Norfolk too!  Local artists and crafters will be presenting their work … and free workshops … throughout the weekend.  And there will be plenty of fun activities for children of all ages.  Be sure to see the rare stained glass windows in Norfolk’s 3 historic churches, fly a kite, attend open houses and farm tours, a farmers market, a prom for adults, astronomy night … the list goes on.  

Heavens Above! Star Gazing at WIN Weekend in Norfolk

They are seeing stars in Norfolk Connecticut - not to mention planets and galaxies during the annual WIN, Weekend in Norfolk Festival taking place this year on August 3, 4 and 5.    One of the many highlights of WIN is the Free Astronomy Night Event with Matthew Moore Johnson taking place on August 4  at 8 p.m. at Dennis Hill State Park on Litchfield Road. 

Norfolk is one of the best places in Connecticut to stargaze...so make sure not to miss the special Astronomy Night. Don't forget to bring your own binoculars or a telescope if you have one. Dennis Hill State Park is at an elevation of 1627 feet and Norfolk doesn't have any "light pollution" making it an excellent spot to observe the nighttime sky.

Milky Way

Observing the heavens can be as easy as sitting back in a reclining summer chair and then turning a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope to the celestial heavens that are so brilliant in the quiet hamlet of Norfolk. Participants that want a more exciting and active look at the stars will be able to examine and learn about five different optical systems under the guidance of Johnson.  Guests will also learn about how binoculars work and how to adjust them properly for crystal clear focused viewing.  

For the "technosavvy," Johnson will demonstrate how to use Planispheres and Smartphone applications for optimal use.  He will also show participants how to take pictures of celestial objects with a smartphone and how to share them instantly with their friends.   And, if you have ever wanted to learn how to read a star chart, don't miss this star-studded event.

About the Moon

On August 4, the Moon will be in a third-quarter phase, which occurs roughly 3 weeks after the new moon when the earth is three-quarters of the way through its orbit around the earth. The Moon’s left side will be illuminated and the right side dark. The Moon will rise around midnight on the eastern horizon and set in the west around noon the next day. 

About WIN- Weekend In Norfolk 

No holds barred! Fun for all is the watchword in Norfolk, Conn., this coming August 3, 4 and 5 during the town’s third annual three-day, town-wide festival, A Weekend in Norfolk. Everyone’s invited to come with family and friends to enjoy the more than 80 events—mostly free—that Norfolk’s organizations, businesses, and individuals will all be putting on to welcome visitors to their town.

Visit the Weekend in Norfolk Website, for details by special interest or by day and time, and be sure to come the first weekend in August 2018 (August 3, 4 and 5). 

You’ll have all the fun you imagined and more!

Norfolk’s WINning three-day festival garners enthusiastic town-wide support

Norfolk is a very special community in the heart of Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills. It is also unique in that it has developed a summer and winter town-wide festival, Weekend in Norfolk (WIN), with support from more than 100 organizations, businesses and individuals and from the Town of Norfolk itself.

One of the most important elements of creating a town-wide festival is to get the support of local government officials, and Norfolk’s have put tangible help behind their approval of WIN. The town acts as the event’s fiscal agent so that donations made to WIN are tax deductible, its staff assists the committee as needed and it allows the use of town property for events that are part of WIN. “The town’s encouragement and support are so important,” says event co-chair Sue Frisch. “That support makes everything easier to do.”

Matt Riiska, Norfolk’s first selectman, believes that WIN, coming on August 3, 4 and 5 this summer, is a natural extension of Norfolk’s rich cultural heritage. “Music, art, and literature are all embraced by our town,” he says. “From the summer concerts at the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, home of the Yale Summer School of Music, to the year round concerts at Infinity Hall and the concerts throughout the year at the library, there are many opportunities for music lovers. The monthly art openings at the Norfolk Library and the summer art programs at Yale not only display art, but also encourage artists to live and work in Norfolk. If you are more interested in literature you can always stop in at the Norfolk Library to pick up a good read or participate in a book discussion. All of these venues not only stimulate their respective arts, but are also architecturally beautiful. WIN is an excellent way to showcase what a wonderful town Norfolk is.”

Another essential element in Weekend in Norfolk’s success is the enthusiastic participation of the town’s organizations, which sponsor events and help publicize the weekend. “Everyone in town jumped on the idea when this was proposed three and a half years ago,” Frisch says, “and they’ve all been both creative and committee when it comes to events to showcase themselves and the town.

“We’ve been fortunate to have the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Infinity Music Hall and the Norfolk Artists & Friends all involved, but many other organizations, businesses and individuals are participating too. There are more than 40 sponsors for 70 or more events,” she says.

And another form of participation has been financial. Frisch says “An important part of putting on a festival is letting people know about it. Organizations like Norfolk Foundation, as well as businesses and many individuals, have been very generous in supporting its cost, including both materials and publicity. It helps make this community event come together.”

For example, Frisch says, the National Iron Bank and Weekend in Norfolk have partnered in a new initiative called WINbucks. “The bank is helping the local merchants by helping WIN,” Frisch adds. “They’ve made it possible for us to issue WINbucks, coupons good—during Weekend in Norfolk only—for new purchases of $5 or more at participating downtown merchants.” WINbucks, the brainchild of Frisch’s co-chair, Dawn Whalen, are given out during WIN to random attendees and were highly popular last year. Through its grant to WIN, the bank covers the cost of redeeming the coupons.

According to Brock Wehry, the Relationship Manager at the National Iron Bank, the most important reason they are participating in WIN is their belief in the importance of reinvesting in communities like Norfolk.  “A partnership with Weekend in Norfolk was a natural fit for the bank because many of its goals are aligned with those of the bank; such as fostering a sense of community, attracting new families into town, and supporting and stimulating the local economy. It’s a great event that provides a multitude of activities for people of all ages and interests, and also helps bring attention to the wonderful businesses and resources in town that visitors from other areas may not otherwise be aware are available,” says Wehry.

“Like the bank, I believe WIN was created with the intention of addressing the needs of the area, whether it’s stimulating the local economy or attracting new families into town” he says. National Iron Bank has a long history of volunteerism and community involvement, and we’re proud to continue that tradition and partner with WIN on this event. Hopefully, in time it can become its own tradition and continue evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of the Norfolk community.”

About WIN

A Weekend in Norfolk, to be held August 3, 4, and 5, is a fun and activity-filled three days that show off what town residents love about living here. World-class music, street concerts, art shows, a farmers market, walking tours and star gazing are just some of the activities. For kids activities there is water soccer, tours of Lost Ruby and other farms and ice cream socials, and adults can renew their wedding vows on the Village Green should the romantic spirit of Norfolk inspire them. For an up to date listing of events by special interest or by date and time, visit weekendinnorfolk.org.