Spoons ready?
Belly empty?
IT’S TIME FOR SOUPSTOCK.
What has quickly become Shelton’s annual summer kick-off event, Soupstock, is back and bigger than ever.
It’s scheduled to start 10 a.m. June 8 at Veterans’ Memorial Park in downtown Shelton.
The festival’s headlining attraction is a pro-am soup competition, where cooks from across Connecticut vie for the title with their tastiest recipes.
All “judges” get access to the soup tent all day.
“Everyone pays a small donation to get in and you sample the soup flavors from local chefs and local community members. This year we have over 15 contestants and Liquid Lunch is of course sponsoring the soup competition,” Nicole Heriot, one of the event’s organizers, said.
Liquid Lunch owners Michele and Fred Bialek sparked the idea for Soupstock in 2008 after Michele’s grandmother, Mary A. Schmecker, passed away.
Schmecker, a ceramics instructor and art mentor at the Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, was a fixture in the community for more than 35 years.
To honor her legacy the Bialeks established the Turtle Shell Fund, which offers art-based scholarships to Valley children and young adults.
To raise money for the fund, they pooled their own experience with help from Heriot and friend Joe Manganello to organize a festival centered around their business — soup — and the first Soupstock was held in 2010.
Since then, the event has grown tremendously.
This year’s music lineup is larger and more varied than in the past, with individual artists and bands scheduled to play on two stages throughout the day and into the evening.
“We just walked into the most incredible lineup,” Heriot said. “We definitely worked hard for it and as we’ve grown our choices have gotten bigger and wider and we have some incredible local talent and incredible national acts.”
Acts from Connecticut include: The Alpaca Gnomes, Hubinger Street, The Nameless Trio, and Bobby Paltauf, “a 14-year-old guitar prodigy” playing on the Soup Stage at noon.
Headliner bands playing on the Main Stage will be The Main Squeeze, Kung Fu, and Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds.
“The Main Squeeze is from the west coast,” Heriot said of the Indiana-born band. “So we’ve totally grown and are just so thrilled. On the second stage last year we had mostly acoustic acts but this year we have new stuff, like The String Fingers. They’re like a dynamic cross between traditional folk and Americana.”
The Kids’ Fun Zone will also have some new features this year, including two bounce houses, an arts & crafts zone, a tie-dye T‑shirt session, face painting, activities sponsored by Home Depot and drum circles and a hoop zone presented by Bring The Hoopla.
“It is free to enter the festival and enjoy the sights and sounds, however there is a small donation for these activities and the soup tent but all money goes directly to our nonprofit charity organization,” Heriot said.
Soupstock 2013 marks the first calendar year since the Turtle Shell Fund gained federally recognized 501©(3) public charity status.
“We’ve been proud and have really embraced being a new nonprofit organization,” Heriot said. “This past year we were able to give $3,000 to the Boys & Girls Club and they began three programs with that money: an art, a photography and a robotics program. And we gave two summer camp scholarships to Center Stage. This year we’ll get through the festival and will be thrilled to give back.”
The day will round out with a student art competition. Student artwork from the Valley’s elementary, middle and high schools will be displayed and an awards ceremony will be held in the park’s new pavilion.
Event goers can also shop grab a bite to eat while supporting local businesses. Heriot said food from Liquid Lunch, Stone Gardens Farm, Addeo’s Italian Ice, BRYACH Raw Bar and DiSorbo’s Bakery (to name a few) will be available as long as supplies last.
The “beer garden” will feature brews from Saranac.
“We have over 30 handmade vendors this year in our ‘vendor village.’ Everything from hoops to kids’ clothing to ukuleles and instruments and jewelry,” she said.
As Soupstock continues to garner more attention from artists, vendors and patrons alike, not all the event organizers can say they’re surprised with the success.
“No, I don’t think we all thought it would get this big, but I kind of did,” Heriot said, “because, honestly, everyone loves to celebrate the beautiful things in life, and that’s what this is. Ultimately it’s a day about celebrating music, art, food, crafts, people and the community. I think it’s incredible that we can bring extra beauty to a place that is already beautiful.”
Soupstock 2013 will be held rain or shine June 8 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information and for a complete lineup of musicians, visit the event’s website: soupstockfestival.org.
