38th Annual Brewster In Bloom This Weekend

BREWSTER – Daffodils have flowered — maybe a tad early — and Brewster in Bloom will follow suit through the weekend and beyond.

“People ask why don’t we have the parade earlier so the daffodils are all in bloom,” said Kyle Hinkle, executive director of the Brewster Chamber of Commerce. “It’s not daffodils in Bloom. It’s Brewster in Bloom. There are still blooms all the time if the daffodils are drooping. The tulips are up. Lilacs are coming out. The azaleas will be blooming and the cherry trees as well.”

But the yellow and white daffodils lining Route 6A surely herald the coming of summer, and Brewster in Bloom is the first big event of the season.

The 38th annual Brewster in Bloom celebration begins Friday evening and runs through Sunday, when the parade, whose theme this year is “Enchantment Under the Sea,” begins at 1 p.m.

This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Brewster Town Band, and the season’s first concert is Friday, May 3, at 7 p.m. at the Brewster Baptist Church on Route 6A, kicking off the weekend celebration. The concert is free and donations will go to support future band programs. Director John New’s program will feature music by Hoagy Carmichael, a Victor Herbert medley, Richard Wagner’s Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral and Broadway’s “Man of La Mancha” and other tuneful selections.

Another annual anchor of Brewster in Bloom is the Arts and Crafts Show. For the first time since 2019 the show will be back at what was the Cape Cod Sea Camps Property on Route 6A, now the town-owned Bay Property.

“It’s a great spot,” Hinkle said. “It’s extremely visible on Route 6A. We’ll have a tent that is 200 feet by 40 feet with power for vendors that want that. We have 30 vendors that do pop-up displays as well.”

The Arts and Crafts show will be open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“One thing that is different this year is we are facing new expenses, as everybody is,” Hinkle said. “So we will ask people at the Arts and Crafts Show for a donation of $5 to the Elder Brewster Scholarship for Brewster students moving onto higher education. We also do a [Cape Cod] Tech school tool-ship as well.”

She pointed out the craft show can draw 3,000 or 4,000 people.

“It’s the first outdoor show of the season. It’s a juried show so it has high quality artists,” she said. “People open up their houses because of Brewster in Bloom and they stay in our inns for Brewster in Bloom. For the parade, thousands line the roads from all over the place.”

The big parade is on Sunday starting at 1 p.m. beginning at the Eddy School parking lot and marching toward the center of town, where Brewster General Store and Brewster Inn are. The Brewster Inn and CC Construction sponsor the parade.

And for the energetic and athletically inclined, the Cape Cod 5 Brewster in Bloom Run will sprint off Saturday morning at 10 a.m. from the Brewster Inn and Woodshed. Registration is at 8:30 a.m. in the parking lot and the run is a 5K or 3.1-mile event. The entry fee is $40 per person or $25 for those under age 12.

Many other events happen over the course of the weekend. The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History will host a talk on garden design by Mary Jo Maffei on Sunday at 11 a.m. The Brewster Animal Rescue League Shelter will host a rabies clinic from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Casey Sherman and Adrienne Brodeur will sign their books “Murder in Hollywood” and “Little Monsters” at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., respectively, at the Brewster Bookstore.

The Brewster Historical Society will hold an open house at the Cobb House from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Refreshments are served and the event is free.

The Windmill Village will also hold an open house from noon to 3 p.m on Saturday.

The Brewster First Parish Meetinghouse speaker series will present Erica Tso Haidas on “Americans and the Fight for Racial Justice” Sunday at 3 p.m.

“Three of the shops at Lemon Tree Plaza — By the Bay Designs, LaBodega and Woodworks — are sponsoring a fundraiser for Wild Care and are handing out information,” Hinkle said. “Also Lower Cape TV will be there and the Department of Families and Children will be giving out information.”

The Wild Care table is there from noon until 2 p.m., but the fundraising is on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Belmont Farm will have a pop-up display at Ace Hardware selling sourdough bread, honey and jams. Businesses all over town will be holding special events. For a full list of activities and events, visit brewster-capecod.com/brewster-events/brewster-in-bloom/.