It’s been a month since the annual Branford Festival drew thousands of people to the Branford Green.
Much of what the public sees is out front: the road race, the hundreds of vendors on the town Green, the performers on stage and a happy audience.
But there is also the backstage.
Backstage is an area near the Academy on the Green and behind Town Hall. Here is a different perspective on the festival. And our photographer Mary Johnson captured the event.
Here’s where you find the kids.
Kids mean walls.
Starting up.
And reaching for the top.
There were kids side-by-side.
Or on a bike.
And parents with their kids on Father’s Day.
This may be this little boy’s first festival.
Here’s Fire Captain Joe Petrosino and his daughter, Bella.
Kids gathered in groups.
The animal kingdom was represented, of course. There are dogs, of course. Here are Giorgio and Giuliana. Giorgio is 10 years old and Giuliana was ten weeks old when photographed sitting side-by-side in their stroller. They were a big hit.
We checked the animal shelter booth on the other side of the Green just to see what might reside in their midst. Voila! Here is shelter director Laura Burban holding an iguana.
And Trevor Cser, 7, of Branford, learned about a horse shoe crab when he and his family visited the Branford Land Trust tent at the festival.
So what’s next by way of exploration? Try a trip to Outer Island, one of the Thimbles and an ecological preserve and refuge for migratory birds. The island is part of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Connecticut State University System. They and the Friends of Outer Island are partners in research projects. Here is photographer Kelley Fryer and her daughter overseeing the Outer Island tent at the festival.
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