On the field behind the Dedham Community House, families gathered on Saturday for the third annual Dedham Square Music and Art Festival.
The daylong event had families kicking up their heels and doing anything to stay cool.
“I’m totally into it,” said Sinéad Glinn, sitting next to her pop-up tent, wiping the sweat off her forehead. “I can’t believe this is free; it’s unbelievable.”
Festival manager Amy Haelsen emphasized it was important to keep the festival free in order to grow and eventually get a regional draw.
“We want to put Dedham on the map as a Mecca for art and cultural activities,” Haelsen said.
Pleased with the big turnout of about several hundred people, Haelsen was most thankful to the festival’s sponsors, especially the Dedham Community House, who “kicked in the resources to make this happen.”
Glinn said she came to the festival particularly to see the Dedham-based Irish band Inchicore because, she said they always perform at night and she can never find a babysitter. Glinn said at the festival she could enjoy the band and not have to worry about the kids as they run around and play games. And run around they did.
Maya Acosta, 9, and her friend Fiona Glinn, 8, seen a few times doing gymnastics in front of the stage as bands played, both said they enjoyed dancing to the music. In an attempt to stay cool, Acosta and her friends soaked each other with water guns, while other families relaxed in the shade, eating ice cream and watermelon.
Also trying to stay cool before his performance was Dedham native and bass guitarist with the Julie Sweeney band, Robert “Chip” Massarelli. Lying on a picnic blanket with his 12-year-old daughter Emily, Massarelli said he met most of the band’s members in high school.
When asked about how what it is like to be a Dedham rock star, Massarelli said “(it’s) a lot of fun; a lot of people come out that you haven’t seen for years.”
Although Julie Sweeney and band plan on branching out to other parts of New England, Massarelli said he enjoys the “reunion” aspect of his current musical career.
Dedham painter Lisa Houck said she enjoyed the festival because she is part of the Dedham community and “I want to participate.”
Houck featured her work along with 19 other local artists in the artists’ tent, a new addition to the festival. Sitting behind her table of ceramics, mosaics and paintings, Houck said she likes to paint a variety of things.
“I like to keep things interesting,” she said.
A few tables over Jeanne Garvey was selling shadow boxes, which are made of things she collected throughout her life.
“I start with an object I love and grow; I add on,” she said of the vintage looking dioramas, made of random objects like an old salt shaker or the top to a teakettle.
Garvey said she passed on the artistic knowledge to her daughter Clare Garvey, also featured at the festival. Clare Garvey, a 21-year-old studio art major at Boston College paints portraits. At the festival she displayed portraits of her father and her three siblings.
Standing in front of her table of framed pictures, Dedham photographer Kerry Hawkins said she wouldn’t describe her work as “traditional.”
“I do a lot of cities, store windows and bikes,” she said. “I like to take long walks in town centers and take photos.”
