Canton Heritage Fest returns to Revere Heritage Site

The Lexington Minute Men fire their muskets during the inaugural Canton Heritage Festival at the Paul Revere Heritage Site.

Canton’s unique and diverse heritage, both of its people and its land, will be a cause for celebration this coming Saturday, May 20, as the community comes together for the second annual Canton Heritage Festival.

Hosted by the Paul Revere Heritage Site, the free, all-ages event will run from 9:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will feature a variety of performances and activities along with vendor booths, community and civic displays, food trucks, and a special art exhibit titled “Our Many Heritages.”

More than 1,500 people are expected to turn out for an event described by organizers as “part farmers market, part live performance venue, part family activity festival, and 100 percent free and open to all Massachusetts residents.”

“In Canton we’ve always had a great 4th of July celebration; this Heritage Festival is now the premier event during warmer weather for our newly opened public common,” noted Victor Del Vecchio, a director of the Revere & Son Heritage Trust. “More and more the Revere Heritage Site is becoming a gathering space and a space that really celebrates community, and we’re happy to be a part of that and to be a place that celebrates historic Canton.”

While the site itself and the museum that’s currently in development center on the industrial legacy of Paul Revere and the copper mill that he founded, stewards of the property are committed to telling an inclusive story. To that end, Saturday’s festival will kick off at 9:45 a.m. with a formal acknowledgment of the original inhabitants of the site — the Massachusett tribe at Ponkapoag.

According to Betsy Sugameli of the Revere & Son Heritage Trust, the focus of the acknowledgment is not on their relationship to the European settlers who colonized the region, but in their own “vital” relationship to this land.

“The statement is a simple recognition that this site was the homeland of the Massachusett before the Colonial Legislature, in 1657, designated 6,000 acres, extending from the Blue Hills to the Neponset River, as part of the Ponkapoag Plantation,” Sugameli explained. “The elements of the land acknowledgement, which was reviewed by Thomas Green, Vice President of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag Council, was meant to stress the sacredness of nature and especially this particular land to the Massachusett, to find commonality of respect and care for this land, and most importantly remind us all that the Massachusett, from Chickatawbut to Wampatuck to the current-day sachem and the tribe, continue to live and gather here in Canton.”

Sugameli said the trust has also been working closely with Green to develop a new interpretive sign to be placed on the site and to design an exhibit in the future museum on Massachusett history.

In addition, contributions from the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag will be featured in “Our Many Heritages,” a special exhibit curated by local artist Adriana Katzew that will be on display on the second floor of both the Revere copper mill (above Northern Spy) and Revere barn.

Sponsored by the Simoni Foundation, the exhibit features works by Katzew highlighting her own unique heritage, as well as photographs and descriptions of family artifacts contributed by Canton residents and CHS students, plus historical pieces from the Reveres and Drapers — two prominent Canton families. The exhibit will be open to visitors throughout the duration of the festival and will remain on display through August.

Saturday’s event will also feature the unveiling of the winning design for the decoration of the transformer box on Neponset Street, part of a collaboration between the Revere & Son Trust and the CHS art department. Students were challenged to come up with a design for the box that celebrates Canton’s heritage, and one submission was selected as a way to help kick off the project. (Plans are in the works to decorate other electrical boxes throughout the town.)

Performers lined up for this year’s Heritage Fest include the Ukaladies, Silversmith Youth Theatre, Wayward Vine, the Unlikely Strummers and the Pied Potter. There will also be a presentation by a Deborah Sampson reenactor and a musket firing by the Lexington Minute Men, along with a slate of performers curated by the Canton Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, including the Iskwelahang Pilipino Dance Group, the CHS dance team, and various CHS music groups.

In the family activity area, kids can enjoy inflatable obstacle courses, an inflatable axe throwing game, a hands-on STEAM activity, live animals, face painting and more. Visitors are also encouraged to stop by the community tent sponsored by Point32Health, where they can chat with representatives from dozens of local nonprofit groups and learn how to get involved.

Also on site will be more than 70 local vendors, with items available for sale ranging from art and antiques to packaged foods to pet accessories and treats, as well as 15 food trucks selling a wide variety of snacks, drinks and desserts. Restroom facilities will be available in the mill and barn, with porta-potties accessible on the grounds as well.

There will be free parking for guests at both MBTA lots, and a free shuttle service will be provided from Canton Junction to the site. Limited parking will also be available on Revere Street, or visitors can park in Canton Center and walk the short distance to the Heritage Site.

For more information about the Canton Heritage Festival, including a full list of vendors, community groups and food trucks, visit paulreveremuseum.org/2023/01/13/canton-heritage-festival-may-20-2023.

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