The Daily Campus

Issue date: 9/15/08 Section: Focus

Residents of both Mansfield and UConn enjoy the food and music at the festival.

Mansfield's Festival on the Green celebrated its fifth year on Sunday. The cloudy morning made some fearful that the festival might have to be moved indoors, but the rain subsided, allowing the festivities to carry on outside.

The UConn Marching Band started things off, leading the parade playing the "UConn Fight Song" and concluded the parade with "America the Beautiful," "The Star Spangled Banner" and the fitting, "Singing in the Rain."

Mansfield Mayor Betsy Paterson has been running the festival for five years and said that the purpose of the festival is to, "call attention to the new Downtown Project" and that the goal is to "be one community, not a town with a university."

Also present were President Michael Hogan, Jonathan XIII and State Representative Denise Merrill (D-Mansfield) who called Mansfield "the best town in the state."

Although the festival is geared toward families, Paterson did say that she would like more UConn students at the festival, though many volunteers were from UConn. One of the UConn students at the festival was Seamus Keating, a 7th-semester political science major and USG's external affairs chairman, who worked at the USG table.

"This is USG's first year at the Festival on the Green," Keating said. "We wanted to reach out to the community and show the said. "We wanted to reach out to the community and show the town that we are here and we want to be a part of it."

Annie Petitti, a 5th-semester communications major, sang with the UConn Chordials. "[We were] very excited to sing here," Petitti said. "We were asked to sing and we love it. We all have festivals like this in our hometowns, so its fun to be a part of this one."

Aside from the various performances like the Irish step dancing team, the Green was full of tables of various organizations. Some of the tables present were the farmer's market, the E.O Smith High School student art show, and handmade sliver jewelry. There was even a booth where attendees could take pictures with a cardboard cutout of presidential candidate Barack Obama. Among the tables was a food court, serving the tastes of many from Indian food to Domino's pizza.

Ronak Patel, a 1st-semester computer science and engineering major, could not help but comment on the Festival's aroma.

"It smells so good," Patel said. "I can't wait to go check out what is here. I smell fried dough; I'd like to get some if I can find it."

All of the coordinators and volunteers agreed that the Festival on the Green is a big event for Mansfield. Paterson hopes that with the new Mansfield Downtown Partnership, they can have a true town green, and carry out more festivals such as this one for the community.

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