Dino Fest is a local festival run by the Church of Christ Congregational in Granby. Located at 235 State Street otherwise known as The Common, this is the 10th year its been Dino Fest. It existed before but not as large scale. It was known as Granby Arts, Crafts, and Music Festival, however it expanded to what it is now. It is scheduled on the second Saturday in September which was the 14th this year. Vendors from all over come to Dino Fest to sell crocheted animals, blown glass, jewelry, art and other handmade wares . Local groups like Granby’s Fire Dept, Hampshire Towing, and the Boy Scouts also have booths. Dino Fest has had local farmers display their tractors and local people display classic cars. There was a record number of vendors this year with more than 100.

This takes a lot of help. There are a lot of volunteers that help with the behind the scenes of Dino Fest. The week before is a busy week for the church members as most of them volunteer their time to help with the setup. They set up canopy, tents, and the stakes seen on The Common. aqSome of the volunteers are local NHS students looking for hours. The volunteers get there in the early morning and after the festival is over they stay extra late. After a day of work they also take everything down. By the next afternoon you would never tell there was a festival there. This festival takes a lot of work and the volunteers did an amazing job.

For those who can’t do the physical part of Dino Fest they donate to it. There are some who donate baskets to the church’s raffle, pumpkins for pumpkin painting, the inflatable slide, pies for the pie eating contest, and anything else they could offer. Volunteer work and donations run Dino Fest and without them it would not exist. The Granby UCC gives back to the community in many ways. One way is the Dino Dash which is a foot race with kids dressed in homemade cardboard dinosaur costumes. The Dino Dash has a bunch of sponsors from the community. The money raised from the Dino Dash goes to the food pantries at Granby-To-Go, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, and the Council on Aging in Granby.

Community was the thing a lot of people talked about. Co-chair of Dino Fest Dennis Doucette said “Dino Fest is a tradition that brings the community together. It brings the entire community together including the select board, the political parties, and all the churches. It’s just a cultural gathering, we get families of all diversities who just enjoy the day, our motto is Hugs and Smiles.” Nohham Cachat-Shiling offers a blessing on the morning of Dino Fest. The First Words of the blessing were in Mohawk and the sung prayer was in Nashaue. He was asked about Dino Fest and he said “the reason we come to give the blessing here is because we think this is a really good community, it’s just a genuinely good community. People are treating each other very kindly here, I feel it’s a very strong community event that’s geared more towards families and children. Patron Rose Was was asked about Dino Fest and she said “it’s fun, it’s a good experience for our family, good to help the community too.”