Festival Day!
By the gazebo.on Park Street
Stephanie Ossenfort
Conducting the Concert Band

The Jazz Band at the
Montgomery Meadows
Nursing Home
Participants love to take
their music to those who
cannot come to the festival!
Dan Jones conducting

Practice, practice, practice!
A day-long rehearsal of the Jazz Band.
Festival performances are the result of only three weeks of rehearsals!

Volunteers Make the Difference!
FOVAPA is an all-volunteer organization.  No dollars are spent on any salaries except for our professional instructors and workshop leaders.  Volunteer hours number in the hundreds to produce this festival each year.

The visual arts are an important part of our summer program.  This mask is made of clay that has been rolled, formed, fired, painted, sewn together, and decorated in one of the classes.
This class was instructed by pottery artist Cornelia Cole.

Members of the photography class ham it up for their instructor Linda Buckman's camera on the day of the festival.

It takes the support of many community partners to make each year's festival a reality.  Thanking them is a regular part of the day's program.
Mayor Dan Reich, who was instrumental in helping us start the first year's concert, says a few words about the impact of SummerFest on the small village of Fonda.

Inspired by a practice initiated by  Larry Pearson of Fonda-Fultonville's Elementary Band where he had his students invite a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle to come to a rehearsal and play their instruments along with the band at their school concert, in addition to FOVAPA's dedication to inclusively. SummerFest programs are multigenerational in nature.  Over the years many parent-child, brother-sister, etc. collaborations have been part of our programs.

Participants of a beginning guitar lesson series enjoyed learning the basics of playing guitar, moving on their way to more advanced studies to play for their personal enjoyment.  FOVAPA continues to strive to reach out to meet the area's needs in the arts.  This lesson series, instructed by regional performer Daryl Kosinski, was a first of what we hope will become a long tradition of lesson series.