If you’re like most hipsters, you probably think it’s a bad idea to show up to a popular festival celebrating glass, the material that single-handedly built a Fortune 500 company in our backyard. You wouldn’t be caught dead enjoying cotton candy, for example, unless it could be photographed ironically for your latest Instagram series on ‘terrible food that tastes great.’ But there’s a small part of you thinking, “hey… I used to love cotton candy and what if I DO want to check out GlassFest this year?” Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered.
Here are the things you can enjoy during each day of GlassFest while still skipping the most popular, crowd-inducing portions of the festival:
Thursday, May 26
Studio at 20 Exhibition Opening
The Corning Museum of Glass is celebrating 20 years since opening its glassmaking studio, and we wrote an entire post about the surrounding festivities. Many of these will take place before the evening’s 2300? event, so you’ll be able to cut out early to spend time with the cat and switch your winter scarves with your summer scarves.
Friday, May 27
Urban Arts Crawl
We don’t love to toot our own horn around here, but we’re sponsoring the last Urban Arts Crawl of the season before taking a summer hiatus, and the participating galleries are really stepping up their collective game this time. From 5pm to 8pm, walk around Market Street and check out all the art experiences this town has to offer!
Urban Corning Meetup
We don’t love to toot our own horn around here, but we’re hosting another Urban Corning Meetup following this month’s Urban Arts Crawl. This time, it’s at our local hipster hangout, Hand + Foot.?Nothing is required except showing up and having a drink with your favorite Urban Corning writers and all our fans. We won’t be spending the night tooting our own horns, we promise.
Saturday, May 28
GlassFest 8K Race
It’s going to be hot and muggy, and you may still be a little tired from those Friday night activities, but there’s no better route to a fast recovery than to run 8 kilometers (a recent Google inquiry converts this distance to 4.97 American miles). All finishers will receive a hand-made glass medal!
Brews, Blues, and BBQ
We don’t get many opportunities to listen to live music and drink wine or beer – OUTSIDE! Near the Radisson from 4pm to 7pm on Saturday night, there will be a tent and a space to do just that. Enjoy it while it’s here, and don’t tell too many of your friends.
Sunday, May 29
Sunday Brunch at The Cellar
Ok, it’s not a sanctioned GlassFest activity except that it happens every year during GlassFest and it’s a fine tradition for all you hipster brunch lovers out there, present company NOT excluded. We don’t really have to give you too many reasons to want to have brunch at The Cellar, but here are 3 anyways.
Street Vendors and Music
By this time, the chance of rain will have gone down and you’ll be in full festival mode no matter how hard you try to hipster. Take in this less-busy day of street vendors, street food, live music, and general activity on Market Street because you never know when you’ll get another shot at cotton candy.
For the full schedule and everything happening during GlassFest 2016, check out www.GlassFest.org today!
Sean is the owner and partner at Creagent Marketing in Corning, NY. He helps businesses find their voice on social media and build their audience online. He helps individuals find delicious meals and great drinks throughout the Southern Finger Lakes.