Winooski Festival Shows Summary

WINOOSKI – The Waking Windows Festival barely got its first run in three years on Friday when rap musician Sammus embodies the sentiments of many of the attendees.

“This is my first show in two years,” Samos told the audience at the start of her set. “Maybe I cry a few times.”

After one song she updated her opening notes. “I’m already crying,” said Samos. “Wonderful.”

After two years of more isolation than most of us have ever experienced, the three-day Waking Windows Festival felt like waking up all over again. The event, which brings world-famous acts and features dozens of local musicians, in its first nine years has always felt like the first big party of spring. With the festival canceled in 2020 and never planned for in 2021, this year’s all-sold-out iteration was the biggest ever.

Crowds celebrated over three wonderful days of music and the arrival of beautiful weather. Vermonters had the highest vaccination rates and lowest hospitalization rates in the country for most of the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The country was almost completely shut down for the first few months after the virus arrived to avoid spreading the disease as much as possible.

Get the latest music and arts news on your phone:Download Burlington Free Press

The ability to throw a party like Waking Windows was a big reason Vermont sacrificed so much early on to keep the virus at bay. The weekend was the reward for all that work.

Music can heal with Low Cut Connie

This does not mean, of course, that the party was 100% carefree. The attendees were frolicking with varying levels of vigilance against turning the festival from a scattering of joy to a supernatural tablecloth. Few of the crowds in places around Winwinsky were wearing protective masks, hoping the odds were in favor of enjoying themselves more than contracting coronavirus.