Galway residents peruse blueberries being sold at Galway's annual Blueberry Festival on Saturday.

Galway's annual Blueberry Festival draws large crowds at Dockstander Recreational Park on Saturday.

Attendees peruse different crafts and products being sold at Galway's annual Blueberry Festival on Saturday.

Drummers play a steady beat at Galway's annual Blueberry Festival on Saturday.

Galway residents and outside visitors gathered under the warm sunshine to enjoy a day filled with blueberries, vendors and food for the town’s annual Blueberry Festival at Dockstader Recreational Park on Saturday.

Seventy vendors participated in the event, and residents enjoyed baked goods, music and local craft vendors. It was the fourth year for the festival, which was organized by Galway’s local rotary club.

“The festival brings people from outside of the community into Galway, and they get to experience, I guess you could call it, a small-town event,” Galway Rotary President Melissa Rathbun said. “It’s a pretty small group of people that pull all of this together, but it is a community effort. ... Last year, I left here with such a high. I was so proud of my community.”

Rathbun said last year 80% of the vendors sold out completely. She also said that the event is a way for farmers to interact with the community at the height of blueberry season.

“This is the time of year where blueberries are at probably one of their highest peaks,” she said. “It’s actually a lot of work for the blueberry farms to be here, because they’re picking in their own fields, they’re running their own businesses. But this is also a great opportunity for people to meet the farmers and be able to get fresh blueberries right here. ... I think it’s a wonderful way to kind of raise the awareness of the agricultural roots that are in our [community].”

Galway town supervisor J.D. Arnold also stopped by to partake in the festivities. He, too, said the festival is a great way to bring people together, and to support local and small businesses.

“I think people want the sense of community and activities that includes everybody, and I think this is a good example of that,” he said. “It’s nice to know that we’re providing a venue that people want to participate in.”

For local residents Mark and Jyll Carota, Saturday’s event was a first. The couple own Star Farms, a local blueberry farm in Galway, and attended for the first time.

“It’s been wonderful,” Mark said. “It’s been really refreshing — you get caught in the rat race of life, and this gives us an opportunity to really step back and look at it. What’s important, and it’s family, it’s community, it’s hard to put into words. It’s really kind of getting into that old world. Everybody helps everybody, nobody’s out for themselves. We’re all [a] community. We’re all friends. It’s refreshing to know that there’s still people out there, and we’re now a part of it.”

Andrew McElboy drove an hour from Little Falls to sell alpaca wool socks, gloves and other products at the event. He emphasized how the community engaged with his booth, and the hospitality he was greeted with.

“We were here last year, [it] draws a lot of people, very well run, they do a great job of promoting it,” he said. “Everybody is just very helpful, friendly, just a real fun place to be… It brings people together. The people love to support all the small vendors. With our products, it’s not a real common product, so not everybody wants to travel up to Little Falls to buy a pair of alpaca socks, but we’re here. They know we’re going to be here, we promote it, and [it] saves people travel time and convenience.”

Joining attendees at the event were a few four-legged friends. Mayfield-based dog rescue Heartwarming Hounds brought some of their own fosters to meet participants, and to encourage people to either foster or adopt their rescues.

“We have adopters from Galway all the time, so I thought it’d be a good place to come out to meet some new people, [and] maybe meet some foster parents or dog adopters,” founder and director Alison Martin said. “The dogs are all having a great time,........

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