At exactly 5 PM this Sunday June 1, all the free tickets to the 2nd annual Feast of the Falls will be handed out on FeastOfTheFalls.org. The free tickets are only available to Upper Falls residents and they will be dispensed for free! on a first-come-first-served basis. They are expected to go VERY quickly so be sure to be standing by your web browser at 5PM.
The Feast is a community gathering like you’ve never seen. The 300 guests arrive over Echo Bridge to the decorated woods of Hemlock Gorge, full of the music of a string quartet wafting through the trees. They sit down at one very, very long table for a fabulous four course gourmet dinner, served by their elected officials and the familiar faces from local businesses.
If you’re not fortunate enough to live in Upper Falls, don’t despair. There are two other ways you could attend.
* Next week sometime we’ll begin auctioning off 20 tickets to the highest bidders and anyone can bid on them. We’ll put a notice here on Village14 when the auction begins
* If you’re willing to work for your dinner there might be an opportunity to join the volunteers who put on the Feast. If you might be interested, send me an email at [email protected]
Jerry, I glanced at the web site and don’t see how “resident of Upper Falls” is defined. Is this for
1) residents within the 02464 Upper Falls zip code?
2) residents within the Upper Falls historic district?
3) residents within the Upper Falls Neighborhood Area Council boundaries?
4) subscribers to the Upper Falls News?
or some combination of the above (no two of which have the same boundaries)?
@Bruce – As you so rightly point out, village boundaries are inherently vague and ambiguous. Ultimately the Feast of the Falls crew will make the determination. If you’re in either 1, 2, or 3 there shouldn’t be a problem.
Subscribing to the Upper Falls News isn’t a factor (we have subscribers in England and Hawaii) for whether or not you get tickets.
One minor criticism last year is that some neighborhood people didn’t hear about it until it was too late because we publicized it mostly through the Upper Falls News and Village14. To do a better job on that score, we just put up posters and flyers around the neighborhood today. Hopefully everyone will get the word in time this year.
Jerry,
With all due respect, ( and with perhaps just a little suspicion), but one wonders if you didn’t introduce this little bit of fluff to bury the thread you started earlier today ” Teardowns, Zoning, affordability & Neighborhood Character “.
That topic took off with a flurry of heated interest, following up the scathing TAB Guest Column by Kathleen Kouril Greiser, “Newtonville Now, Waban Next ?”.
One wonders if you might be a part of a community that will control the message on this Blog by loading it with a new topic to cover up another message of real importance? Did you get some pressure from your partners here?
Blue, let me by the first to say that you win the award for the silliest post of the day. And it is only 7 am!
Do you really believe that this blog has any real sway or more importantly that Jerry or anyone else here is trying to cover up anything? If they were trying to cover it up, why start the other thread in the first place.
But you did make me chuckle. So there’s that!
@blurprintbill – Whew! You need to take a deep breath there buddy.
No, I’m not part of any conspiracy or coverup. My blogging overlords have not silenced me. There’s a much simpler explanation.
I’m part of two big events in the coming weeks, the Tour de Newton and the Feast of the Falls. As anyone who knows me will tell you – while I do enjoy commenting on the important and weighty issues of the day, I enjoy a big party even more.
So while housing and teardowns may be important issues, at the moment 90% of my interest, enthusiasm and excitement are focused on these “fluffy” upcoming events.
Oh, it goes deeper than that Bill – Jerry actually concocted the whole event simply to bury the previous topic. And here’s where it gets really creepy – he hatched his evil plot over a year ago by launching the inaugural event in 2013. (Fig, don’t sell Bill short – that was easily the most ridiculous post of the month, and it is a strong contender for the year.)
@blueprintbill – To reassure you about my “fluffy” bona fides, I’ve just beefed up the Related Posts section above. As you can see, I’m really just a very fluffy guy.
Jerry – Thanks for the clarification. I think 2 and 3 are both wholly inside 1, perhaps excepting a few stray properties. 4 was tongue-in-cheek.
As to the commenter who seems to want to “teardown” this post on building up community, I’ll just say thanks for signaling that I can skip past your comments in the future without missing much.
+1 on Tricia’s, FNV’s, and Jerry’s comments. @blueprintbill, yes, take some deep breaths please!!!
I propose a new v14 feature. Any comments written after 11:30pm are queued for publication the next morning, following a re-approval request to the author: “Are you sure you really want to post this?”
To Tricia: As the kids say, LOL!
Jerry a huge thank you for all that you do for Newton.
I probably don’t need to weigh in here, given that Fig, Tricia, Michael and Jane have articulately done so already.
But as a presumed Village 14 overlord, I can’t resist….
@Bill your comment reflects a fundamental misunderstanding as to why the vast majority of us (including those of us who start the threads, those who comment regularly and not just about one issue, and those who just come here daily or weekly to read what others are saying) put so much time and effort into Village 14.
This blog was created as a place to discuss all things Newton. That includes the “fluff” (the people, places, events, etc. that make our community a community) as well as the issues that defines our community now and into the future.
And if there’s one thing us overlords like more than being right, it’s having threads with 50-plus passionate comments that examines all sides of issue (and, yes, drive up our search rankings!).
The only rule Jerry and everyone else who posts here are asked to follow is that each thread has to somehow be about Newton. And in times of really big state, national or international events we’ve strayed from that as well. There is no “pressure.”
I read Kathleen Kouril Greiser’s TAB column yesterday with glee, not because I agreed with her, but because I thought, “Wow this should be good for 50 or more comments on the blog” that will hopefully force people on all sides to at least read the positions of those on an opposite side before commenting. That platform — where many viewpoints meet — is missing from the private list serves and emails were folks only talk amongst themselves. (Pretty much the problem with FOX News and MSNBC, but I digress.) I’m looking forward to linking to it once it’s available.
I think Blue’s comment just shows how passionate and angry these issues make folks. And I echo the blogging at night issue. When I post at 2 am, I usually post a bit crazy.
If I’m working 3-11, 2am is sort of like 8pm for normal people. And it’s amazing how many people are on email late at night. Newton is never totally asleep.
WHEW !!! – We were on to the waiting list in about 13 minutes from the time tix became available at 5 PM