The Friends of the Woodstock Library have announced that “Renascence,” the 90th-anniversary Woodstock Library Fair, will be held on Saturday, July 24 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the library lawn. “After a year of death and isolation, let us find the joy of life in our natural surroundings,” said Friends president Michael Hunt. “Renascence,” the title of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s famed poem, means “the revival of something that has been dormant,” he added.
The Library Fair was dormant last year because of the pandemic and its accompanying tragedies. This year, however, the fair returns in a burst of promise, focusing on the future: children. They line up in costume at 9:45 a.m. at the upper Comeau, march across Tinker Street onto the library lawn and then dance around the colorful maypole.
This year, the Fair Dining Row includes edibles from Provisions Pop-Up, Woodstock Shaved Ice, Tapped into the Catskills, The Land of the Tamal (tamales) and The Friends Pop-Up, with a menu from the famed Colony Café. All-day live music features Tracy Bonham and Melodeon Music House, the Rock Academy and many talented musicians, presented by Colony. The book barn is back, filled to the rafters with books and CDs and great deals for shoppers.
Inspired by the library’s own Peter the Horse, a beloved fixture of the Children’s Room for generations, a 16-person carousel will carry children, parents and friends ‘round and ‘round on the library lawn. The children’s area this year reintroduces youngsters to Steve Charney’s ventriloquism and magic show. Kids will also create ingenious craft projects such as solar Mason-jar lights, colored pencil packs, mini-stretched canvases and photosensitive paper.
A Woodstock getaway is once again First Prize in the Great Expectations Raffle. The getaway includes a two-night stay for two at the scenic Onteora Mountain House, culinary delight in a dinner for two at Cucina Restaurant and a pair of yoga classes at top Woodstock studio Euphoria Yoga. Other prizes include $100 gift cards from scores of Woodstock businesses, including the Garden Café, The Golden Notebook, Catskill Mountain Pizza, Jarita’s Florist, Village Apothecary, H. Houst & Son, Yum Yum Noodle Bar, Cub Market, Woodstock Design, Silvia, Bread Alone, Joshua’s, The Framing Piazza, Jean Turmo and The Tea Shop of Woodstock.
A highlight of the library fair, the annual honoree, is this year’s town hero: Neal Smoller of Village Apothecary and leader of the COVID-Busting Volunteer Army, responsible for vaccinating over 23,000 people in Ulster and Dutchess counties.
If you are so inclined, send an anecdote, a memory or a story from the Woodstock Library Fair. Your first fair? The fair at which you met your love? Fair food? Fair books? Fair antics? Anything and everything fair. Organizers will be posting your memories on a memory wall at the 90th Library Fair.
For additional information, e-mail Sheila Isenberg at sheila.isenberg@gmail.com.
Join the family! 
