West Stockbridge Zucchini Festival 2025 Blossoms Tomorrow
This deliciously lighthearted festival is becoming a major cultural event.
Tomorrow’s sunrise heralds one of the Berkshire’s most cherished annual traditions: the West Stockbridge Zucchini Festival! running from 10 am to 10 pm down Depot and Center Streets.
What’s shaping up weather-wise to be a gourd-geous day will begin at 10 am with a dog parade, which will fill the street with pups donning green getups in a cute and, frankly, bizarre display.
This year’s gathering marks the third annual return of the festival after a nine-year hiatus. Originally held from 2003 to 2013, the event was revived in 2023 to widespread enthusiasm. Legend holds that the quirky choice of zucchini originated when someone found a parked car filled with zucchinis—an amusing incident that inspired the festival theme.
All morning, the festival unfolds with a burst of community energy and creativity. Vendors, artists, craftspeople and community organizations spread like vines throughout the street, offering handcrafted zucchini-themed amusements: from”zuke cornhole and zucchini ring toss to pinewood “zerby” races, zucchini compost catapult, and the oh-so-cute le petit courgette games for kids under four.
But it’s not all fun and games at the Zucchini Festival as fierce culinary rivalries unfold here as well. From 10 to 11:30 am, bakers vie for glory at the Baking Contest. Who makes the best zucchini bread in the Berkshires? All will be decided tomorrow. For the artists out there the zucchini decorating contest provides an opportunity for locals to craft ephemeral museum-worthy works out of the green fruit. (Wait… is a zucchini a fruit? Hold on while I check… Yes! It’s technically a fruit.)
Just before midday, at 10:45am, the pet parade winners are revealed—cute, crafty, or goofy, each parade participant leaves happy because their dogs and don’t understand how contests work. Then, after much anticipation, the food court opens at 11 am, serving up local flavors for the rest of the day and into the evening.
Once the clock strikes noon, the Zuck River Races begin. Six races will take place on the hour from 12 to 5 pm, bringing buoyant competition and riverbank cheers to Center Street’s bridge and banks. Simultaneously, the 3rd Annual WSZF Poetry Corner hosts contemplative voices behind Shaker Mill Books, in a zucchini-centric poetry presentation led by local poet Scott Anderson.
Mid‑afternoon ushers in live music. The Sunday Strummers Ukulele Ensemble plays at 12:30pm, followed by Shut Up & Dance at 2pm, both serenading festival‑goers at the stage near the post office. At 2:30 pm, Miss Vicky enchants children during zucchini story time.
Just before 4 pm, bakers and decorators learn their fates in the baking contest awards and zucchini decorating awards, respectively. At 4 pm, Gilbert the Party Pig takes the stage.
Stilt‑walkers and hula‑hoopers roam Center Street from 4:30 to 5:30 pm, part circus, part village parade. As dusk falls, energy pulses through town as the Lucky Bucket band plays from 5:30 to 8:30pm, followed by Reliant Tom at 8:30pm, both performing on the Baldwin Hardware Front Porch Main Stage. The evening concludes with a Cirque De Light Fire Show at 9:30 p.m.—a blaze of acrobatics and fire dancing illuminating Center Street.
So whether you're in it for the bread, the boats, or the bedazzled zucchinis, West Stockbridge is the place to squash your boredom this weekend.
