Trailfest Brings Music, Craft Beer To Downtown Woodstock

Sign up for the Woodstock-Towne Lake Patch newsletter!

Woodstock residents are just days away from celebrating an annual fundraiser designed to support and expand trails throughout the city. 

Greenprints Allliance’s Trailfest will be held 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, May 2 at the Resurgens Orthopaedics Community Stage along Market Street in downtown Woodstock.

The stage sits adjacent to the future home of Elm Street Cultural Arts Village and the Town To Creek Trail. The day’s events will start with a 5K race and 1 mile fun-run, managed by Woodstock-based Natural Strides, and will continue with live music, food and beer all situated in a festival atmosphere.

The 5K race will start at 8 a.m. along Elm Street and Main Street and will be an out-and-back race along the Greenprints’ Town to Creek and Noonday Creek trail segments.

Awards will be given to the top 3 male and female finishers and overall age group finishers. The 1 mile fun-run is for children under 12 years of age. Race registration information can be found Natural Strides’ website.

RELATED

• Greenprints Alliance Prepares for Trailfest
• Greenprints Alliance Names New Executive Director
• Greenprints Secures $20,500 from Woodstock For Trail Improvements

New this year, SORBA (Southern Off-Road Bicycling Association) Woodstock will host a time trial event at Olde Rope Mill Park.

The course is 3.6 miles of fast, flowing single track on the brand new, not yet officially open trails, with mechanical support provided by Free Flite Bicycles. Participation is free, but a $10 donation to benefit Greenprints Alliance is requested to support trail building initiatives.

Live music will start on the event green following the conclusion of the road and mountain bike races.

Headlining this year’s event will be The Dirty Guv’nahs. This six-piece brotherhood from Knoxville, Tennessee, is called “a fiercely soulful band” by the Boston Globe, and has been touted by Paste Magazine as a band that knows “rock and roll from the inside out.”

The complete music lineup includes:

• The Shetlands (10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.)
• Jonathan Peyton (11:15 a.m. to noon)
• The Highbeams (12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.)
• Reuben’s Bell (2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.)
• Davin McCoy & The Coming Attractions (4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.)

Reformation Brewery is the official craft beer provider for Trailfest 2015 and food vendors to date include Jump Kitchen, Woodstock Masonic Lodge, with more to be announced. Outdoor recreational activities include the Escalade Rock Climbing Gym Rock Wall and mountain biking on the trail alongside the Event Green.

“Recreational amenities such as trails are increasingly seen as regional economic development tools that generate value through related purchases made locally, tourism spending, additional jobs created, sales tax revenue, increased property values and property tax revenue,” said David Potts, chairman, Greenprints Alliance Board of Directors.

Trailfest, which draws roughly 2,000 people each year, is the biggest fundraiser for Greenprints Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Woodstock that has an annual goal of raising $100,000 to advocate for and fund trail projects as part of the award-winning Greenprints Master Plan.

The plan encompasses about 60 miles of multi-use trails and paths in and around Woodstock. For more information, visit trailfest.org.

Photo credit: Greenprints Alliance