ENOSBURG FALLS, Vt. -
Despite the rainy day, hundreds showed up for the 56th annual Enosburg Falls Dairy Festival.
The Lion's Club organizes the event to raise money for the entire community.
Enosburg Falls calls itself the dairy center of the world and they take their claim to fame very seriously. For 56 years now, the Dairy Festival has drawn thousands of people who are all there to celebrate the same thing.
"It's all about dairy, dairy farming and the dairy industry," Dairy Farmer and Lion's Club Member Sid Berkson said.
This is Berkson's 28th year at the festival, he knows just how important the dairy farming industry is to Vermont, especially because he's a dairy farmer.
"We milk 120 cow," Berkson said.
But it hasn't been easy to keep his business afloat.
"The price of fuel is terrible, the price of fertilizer and our corn prices are very high, grain price is very high, we're struggling it out but if you know what farmers are like, they do their best and they make out," Berkson said.
The festival's main goal this year is to raise awareness for the struggling industry.
"Most of our friends and family are farmers and they're from around the area, and dairy farming is obviously a big part of Vermont so we try to support it any way we can," Festival participant Megan Brown said.
But the music, shopping and of course the food help too.
"What was best here? Sausage, sweet sausage, it was amazing! Blooming onions are good too," Brown, Arielle Lee and Gaylord Horskin said.
And with less than one-thousand farmers left in the state of Vermont, Berkson says, shop local!
"Support your family farms and your farmers markets and anything to do with agriculture," Berkson said.
The Vermont Dairy Festival is all weekend long. Tomorrow's festivities start with a 10-k "Milk Run" at 9 in the morning.
