The Annual All Species Day Parade has been happening in Montpelier since 1989. It is a joyful community celebration honoring our place in the web of life, celebrating life’s diversity. This is a community pageant where everyone is invited to participate, dressed as another species of life, celebrating our interdependence with life’s bountiful diversity. The day involves the participation of school, community, dance and arts groups bringing them together in performance, song and celebration. In addition to the parade, which is the heart of the day, there are several theatrical performances involving large-scale puppetry, song and dance, celebrating our relationship to the Earth and heralding the coming of spring. The pageant begins in Montpelier’s Hubbard Park at Noon on the first Sunday in May. The parade processes through downtown and ends up on the Statehouse lawn where the festivities continue with the “Birth of Springtime” performance. The All Species Day Parade and Spring Pageant is a free community event.

We offer workshops, many of them free, to provide community members of all ages an opportunity to participate in the dance and performance pieces that make up the day. All Species Day involves many local artists who participate by creating unique performances for the Day.

All Species Day Sunday, May 5, 2019

Come Dressed as your favorite species!

Begins at Noon Hubbard Park, Soccer Field

Calling All Species, Awakening the Spring Goddess, Spring Play at Old Shelter, Arrival of the Stag King

1:00 pm Parade Line-up Hubbard Park – Main Gate Winter Street Entrance

Parade to State House via Spring, Main and State Streets

2:30 pm Birth of Spring Pageant, StateHouse Lawn

Birth of Springtime, Flower Children’s Dance, Morris and Maypole Dances

Workshops & Rehearsal Schedule ~ Be a part of the festivities!

Mask and Puppet making Workshops – Saturday, April 27, 12-4pm.

All are Welcome! Families youth and adults. Make a costume for All Species Day or come help build puppets. Most materials provided. $10-25 suggested donation Please Confirm participation by contacting Janice at jwalrafen@gmail.com or 595-4296

Pageant Rehearsal – Saturday, May 4, 2019, 10-12 pm at the StateHouse. Come dance and sing in the Birth of Spring. All Ages Welcome

Maypole Rehearsal – Saturday May 4, 2019, 12 – 1pm on the Statehouse Lawn. Come learn the dance so you can dance the maypole on All Species Day.  Youth, teens, and adults welcome.

Opening Circle Rehearsal – Saturday May 4,  2109, 2pm Soccerfield, Hubbard Park: West African dancers- Waking the Spring Goddess, Calling in the Directions, Obatala..