Businesses Rally to Throw a Downsized Festival of Fools

This post has been updated.

Burlington City Arts’ Festival of Fools will go on after all — on a smaller scale — thanks to the generosity of local businesses who rallied to pay for it after funding losses had forced its cancellation.

The downsized free event, dubbed the 2025 Fools Block Party, will start the evening of Friday, August 1, and continue on Saturday, August 2, with entertainers and musicians performing on the Church Street Marketplace and in City Hall Park. Among those returning to the silly celebration are crowd favorites Mutts Gone Nuts; the Red Trouser Show; Hilby, the Skinny German Juggle Boy; and Burlington’s own Murmurations Aerial. Acrobat Mason Ames will make his Fools debut.

The concerts, vendors and Splash Dance that BCA already had scheduled for City Hall Park’s Summer in the City series will round out the party.

In February, BCA announced it would not be able to organize this summer’s 18th annual Festival of Fools due to budget cuts and the loss of longtime presenting sponsor Community Bank. The news was met with shock and dismay. The free outdoor event featuring world-class acrobats, magicians, musicians and buskers typically draws 50,000 people over its three-day run, BCA communications director Elena Rosen said. Many downtown business owners call it their best weekend of the summer.

“It was an incredibly challenging decision to pause the festival, but in the position we were in, there was no other move to make,” Rosen said.

Travis Walker-Hodkin was one of those shocked by the news. “This event is widely beloved,” he told Seven Days. Skipping it for a year could make it harder to bring back, he said. So he and his brother, Allan, who own the Café HOT. on Main Street, met with BCA officials and offered to help.

“We were grateful and, frankly, we were floored,” BCA executive director Doreen Kraft said on Wednesday, June 25.

The brothers began contacting friends, colleagues and fellow business owners asking for donations.

“Fundraising and forming coalitions and doing any sort of public action can be a real challenge,” Walker-Hodkin said. “And this was remarkably easy in such a lovely way because anytime we reached out to people about it, they were all just like, ‘Oh, absolutely. We want Festival of Fools.‘”

Donations continue to come in, Rosen said this week, adding that a “generous gift” from the Pomerleau Family Foundation allowed BCA to add the Friday evening events. Of the 30-plus donors, most are downtown businesses, which have been struggling as the city confronts growing problems stemming from homelessness and drug addiction. Protracted construction has closed streets, snarled traffic, and deterred shoppers and diners, forcing businesses to cut back hours or close. Main Street in front of the Café HOT. has been closed for eight months.

“It’s tough right now,” Walker-Hodkin said. Still, business owners wanted to contribute. Those short on cash offered to feed and help house performers. “One of the reasons that we and everybody else who donated to this was so excited about it was just this idea of feeling like you’re getting something back, when it feels like we’ve had a lot taken away.”

Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak praised the collaborative effort to adapt during challenging times. “This is one of those examples where community and city come together and make something beautiful, bright and joyful,” she said.

The Festival of Fools normally takes eight months to plan, but the block party is coming together on the fly, Kraft said: “We are doing this on a wing and a prayer.”

And they’re doing it with a fraction of the typical $120,000 Festival of Fools budget. “This is a real Fools on a shoestring,” Rosen said, while offering appreciation for those making it happen. The event will primarily feature local performers, whereas previous fests also drew national and international talent. “We have a deep bench of fools here,” Rosen said.

“This is a joyful event,” Walker-Hodkin said. “We deserve joy as a city. And the local businesses of Burlington were happy to donate to make that happen.”

BCA continues to look for a new presenting sponsor. Corporate and individual donors can find a link to contribute at burlingtoncityarts.org.