Look Park to host Community Tag Sale

NORTHAMPTON — Look Park will blossom on May 30 from 1-7 p.m. thanks to its Community Tag Sale at Springtacular Festival event, which will feature an afternoon of community gathering and family fun for all.

According to organizers, this is the first time Look Park will host a sale, and the event will supplement the Springtacular Festival, which features live music, food trucks, train rides and fun in the sun at the park.

Look Park Operations Director Mark Penney told Reminder Publishing that an effort to establish this event last year was cancelled due to weather, which is why they are trying to jumpstart it again this year. Penney said the goal is to make an event in the spring that is similar to Look Park’s Fall Festival.

“Basically, in a lot of regards, it’s a mirror image of our Fall Festival at Haunted Train in October, which we’ve done for three years now. The model is the same, and in the same location, it’s in the train lot. We’re partnering with the Northampton Parks and Rec., where for three hours they’ll staff a ‘KidzLand’ which will be arts and crafts, games, bouncy houses,” said Penney. “The rest is in the train lot here in the park, and we’ll have live bands, food trucks. We won’t have the haunted train, but we will have the train and even more activities.”

Penney said the Community Tag Sale element gives the event its own identity. Instead of 20 to 30 craft vendors on site, there will be tents for community members to set up their own individual tag sales. To secure a space for the tag sale, visit lookpark.org/events/. There is a $20 fee to secure a space, and sellers are invited to sell any gently used items from their homes. Smaller craft vendors will also be on site and can apply at the same link.

“We haven’t done that [a community tag sale] before. Back in the Fall Festival, we had a vendor fair, so we had about 20 to 30 craft vendors, but we’ve kind of been sitting on the back burner for a while with the idea to have a tag sale, as it feels like a good thing to do in the spring when people are cleaning up. So we love the idea of incorporating that into the event instead of the craft vendor vibe,” added Penney.

Performances from children entertainer Mr. Liam and cover bands The Avenue and Maxxtone will enrich the event throughout the day. Penney said for season pass holders of the park, the entire day is free to get in, and general entry is $10.

“You can just come and listen to music and be outside. It doesn’t cost a lot, and kids can do the KidzLand or ride the train, get some good food. You can spend seven hours here and have a pretty inexpensive day, connect with other community members and friends. There’s going to be a lot of fun stuff going on that people can partake in,” Penney said. “I know when we had sunny days for the fall event … we’ve had like 2-3,000 people come through on those days, so we can see this being just as successful, and we want to have it be successful this year so it gets kick-started as a tradition and expectation for years to come.”