OLD LYME—UPDATED WITH MORE PHOTOS 7/28: The Old Lyme Midsummer Festival on Saturday turned part of the town’s historic district into a vibrant celebration of the arts. Visitors enjoyed a view of Americana set in the same estuarine light that lured Impressionist painters more than a century ago.
Tents featuring individual artists with works in a vast range of media, local non-profits explaining their mission, culinary delights from nearby farms, and refreshments for immediate consumption were spread across five locations.
These latter comprised the Lyme Art Association, FloGris Museum, Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center, Old Lyme Inn and Lyme Academy of Fine Arts..
On the shaded grounds of the Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center, George Willauer took home a first place trophy for the Packard convertible his father bought new for $3,400 back in 1935. He attributed the vehicle’s pristine condition to Vintage Motorcars of Westbrook, the local shop with an international reputation that undertook a partial restoration after the car was damaged in a crash several years ago.
The 90-year-old Packard came into the world the same year Willauer did. He learned to drive on the three-speed manual transmission he still shifts today.
“It’s a part of me,” he said.
Inside the Kelsey Family Children’s Innovation Discovery Center at the Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center, conservation and education coordinator Joe Attwater helped 6-year-old Nova Berman examine a feather through a digital microscope. As Attwater described the “incredible” properties that make feathers such ideal insulation for comforters and coats, Nova magnified the fluffy down beneath her scope.
“There’s nothing warmer in the world than a feather,” Attwater said.
The festival is a destination not only for locals, but for visitors. This year marked the first Midsummer outing for Christine Mestler of Cincinnati, Ohio, who was in town to visit her sister, Ross Higgins. The women both went home with prints from the “Fence Artists” displayed on the grounds of the Old Lyme Inn.
The Lyme Artisans Guild began in 2023 when Carol Hunts Stanland, a textile artist, forged the crafts collective of jewelry makers, potters, sculptors, weavers and woodturners. Stanland said shoppers can also find their wares at the Guilford Art Center Holiday Expo and Light Up Old Lyme later this year.
Starting off with a 5K race to benefit the Lymes’ Youth Service Bureau and ending with fireworks set off from behind the Lyme-Old Lyme High School, each year brings enough active artistry to keep attendees coming back for more.
So, until next year …