WILTON — With the theme of health education, this weekend’s 32nd annual Wilton Blueberry Festival will feature giant inflatables of a body, a brain, a lung and a heart for the public to walk through.
Festival organizer Shannon Smith said one of the inflatables is larger than her house.
They will be set up in Kineowatha Park on Thursday, the day before the two-day festival opens. Wilton’s Boy Scout troop will stay with the inflatables overnight and members of AmeriCorps will help with them Saturday, Smith said.
The inflatable body is 50 feet long and 17 feet tall, she said. It helps “teach people about the risks, symptoms, nature and causes of various diseases,” according to www.medicalinflatables.com.
Though impressive and educational, the inflatables are only one exhibit during two days full of activities and events.
Musical performances will be held downtown instead of Main Street Garage as previously advertised, she said.
On Friday evening, the Bill Yates Memorial road races, a fun race, a 5K and a 10K, will start from a new location: Cushing School. It’s a new course this year, she said. Preregistration is requested with forms listed on the festival website.
The Friday night free concert will feature Re-Creation, a nonprofit organization that mainly serves America’s Veterans Affairs Medical Centers and state Veterans Homes.
The concert begins at 7:15 p.m. at Academy Hill School and follows a flag folding ceremony that begins at 7 p.m.
Saturday’s blueberry and chili cook-offs take place at Academy Hill School cafeteria. Some 50 to 60 cooks vie for the $500 in prizes, she said.
For the second year, a juried art show takes place in the Bass-Wilson Building from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
The Friends of Wilson Lake will offer boat tours from 1 to 4 p.m. Friday.
There will be a chicken barbecue from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday at the First Congregational Church and the Wilton Lions Club blueberry pancake breakfast from 6 to 10 a.m. Saturday next to KeyBank.
An open house will be held at Wilton Fish & Game Association on Route 2 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Saturday’s parade begins at 9 a.m.
“The show will go on,” Smith said, despite any forecasts for inclement weather.
Fireworks over Wilson Lake will go off at approximately 8:45 p.m. The rain date for fireworks is Aug. 3.
More information is available on the festival website, www.bbf.com
abryant@sunjournal.com
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