(Photo courtesy of Aaliyah Afolabi) Buddy Valastro with his Lowell Bicentennial themed cake of City Hall
Aaliyah Afolabi
Connector Contributor
Lowell, Massachusetts, was officially incorporated on March 1, 1826. Saturday, Feb. 28, marked two hundred years of this city’s establishment. The city celebrated the Bicentennial kickoff with an extra special WinterFest in Downtown Lowell. To celebrate Lowell’s two-hundredth birthday, the city planned a free day of festivities that welcomed everyone from Lowell and all over the state. The WinterFest classic celebrates community, culture, art, music and food all while accommodating the chilly weather of winter. There were festivities that happened all throughout the day, with some happening one after the other and some feeding into the plunge of other festivals. This event featured a chocolate buffet, a soup tasting competition, an arts market, a display of pastries made by local bakeries (with a special guest), air hockey and curling, live ice carving, live fire performances, voting of art made by Lowell youth and so on.
At the very beginning of the event, there was the St. Anne’s Chocolate Festival in the St. Anne’s Church on Kirk Street. This festival had an all-you-can-eat chocolate treats in the church’s Parish Hall. There were chocolates, sweets and raffles to win prizes at this event.
After an hour into the chocolate festival at the St. Anne’s Church, there was the Richard Rourke Memorial Soup Competition. This event featured a series of soups from local restaurants. There was the vegetarian and dairy-free black bean soup from YouthBuild at Teamwork Inc, the classic New England clam chowder, topped with lobster meat from Chowder Factory, the vegan, gluten and nut free sweet potato bisque from Dragonfly Cafe, the Abati soup with Brazilian pork grits from Tram Caipira. There was also the chicken, sweet potato, and sage chowder from the Purple Carrot Bread Company, the Chicken Yukatan soup from Cobblestones, the corn chowder with cornbread croutons from the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Lowell, the Fork!n Golden soup from FORK Included, the seafood chowder from Lowell Senior Center, the Phở Gà from Viet Thai and the Khao Piak Sen from Laos Thai Kitchen. For a small sum of five dollars, this was really something to get a bang for their buck.
On Merrimack Street, there was an arts market filled with products made by local artists. These products included fiber arts products, tarot readings, gut friendly food products, pet food products, ceramic works, stained glass art, paintings, books, stickers, post cards, illusionistic toys and accessories, spirituality-based products like incense, crystals, candles, cards and sustainable jewelries along with Lowell based merch.
Amongst many of the highlights of the day, came the world-famous baker, Buddy Valastro, from the show “Cake Boss.” Mr. Valastro had a bite from each of the displays of pastries from twelve different bakeries in Lowell, with festival attendants doing the same after him. Mr. Valastro made four cakes for the attendants to enjoy, as well as making a Lowell Bicentennial Themed cake of the Lowell City Hall. He interacted with fellow attendants as well as giving out photographs and autographs.
Throughout the streets of this event, there was the air hockey and curling open for attendees to play, LED swings, fire games, bonfire hubs, fire performances, local art open for voting made by Lowell youth, interactive magicians and roving performers, food trucks from local restaurants and ice sculptures. The ice sculptures included a snowflake, an eagle, a panther and a live sculpting of Lowell’s one and only Lowla Bear.
Quincy Allen, a freshman liberal arts major, when asked what was her favorite thing about the Bicentennial festival and what does she look forward to seeing in more events in Lowell, said, “It was so fun to eat all those desserts, meet the Cake Boss and just have a good time walking around Lowell, now that it’s a little warmer and some of the snow has melted.” She also expressed that she would love to see more free events and student participation because the city hosts many free festivals that are totally geared towards the public and that it would be more fun if there was a bit more student participation. There is a website called City of Lowell that publishes affairs and upcoming events going on in the city. There will be ongoing events, both general and non-bicentennial-themed going on throughout the year. For those who are interested in attending events hosted by the city, feel free to check out the city’s website.
Those who look forward to volunteering or being an overseer in these series of great events that celebrate this city can sign up at: https://www.bit.ly/volunteerwf26 or sign up for the Volunteer newsletter at https://www.likelowell.com/volunteers to be notified of future opportunities.
