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Glen Rutan puts finishing touches on an icy Easter basket at last year's Winterfest.

Winterfest Returns To North Adams' Downtown

Staff ReportsiBerkshires
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Winterfest returns downtown Saturday.

The 14th annual celebration features chowder tasting, ice skating, horse-drawn wagon rides and more to fight cabin fever.

The main attraction is a Chowder Hop with tastings throughout downtown. A map will be available with directions to participating restaurants offering free samples and ballots to vote on the best chowder.

The participating restaurants are the Freight Yard Pub, Taylor's Restaurant, Tastefully Simple, Petrino's Cafe, Red Herring, Big Shirl's Diner, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Aramark Dining Services, North Adams Regional Hospital Dining Services, Desperados, the Hub Restaurant, Boston Sea Foods Restaurant, Bounti-Fare, Gringos, the Berkshire Food Project, Gramercy Bistro and RUB.

Ice sculpting will be on Main, Holden and Eagle streets from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Hoosac Bank is again offering hot chocolate, cookies and face painting from 10 a.m. until noon and horse-drawn wagon rides up Main Street from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m.

The Northern Berkshire Girl Scouts will host winter carnival games from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. and First Congregational Church will be selling cups of hot chocolate and giving stained-glass window tours with the profits going to the church's ministry programs from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m..

MCLA Gallery 51 will host a free paper-making workshop from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. The workshop will teach participants how to make paper from garden plants.
 
Slider, the SteepleCats mascot, will make an appearance on Holden Street and the team will hold a raffle.

Ronnie's cycle will provide a display of snowmobiles on the sidewalk throughout the day on the Berkshire Plaza and Petrino’s Cafe will have live music from late morning into the afternoon.

Christo's Famous Pizza will offer samples of its special soup and other restaurants and stores are planning specials for the day.

The Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Skating Rink will have a free ice skating party from 7 to 8:50 p.m.
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Nor'easter Set to Drop Foot of Snow Over Berkshires

Update on the powerful Nor'easter set to drop up to a foot of snow over the region. This come right on the tail Friday's storm that dropped up to 6 inches in some areas. 
 
The National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y., has shifted the winter storm warning issued from Saturday a few hours later; it now begins at 4 p.m. on Sunday  but still runs through 7 p.m. on Monday for the Berkshires, eastern New York, Southern Vermont and northern Connecticut.
 
Heavy snow expected with total accumulations between 8 and 14 inches with some locally higher totals possible over the high peaks of the Catskills AND the Berkshires. Winds could gust as high as 50 mph. 
 
The forecasted "bomb cyclone" is lining up to hit New York City with its first blizzard in a decade, but Western Mass will feel some of its effects.  
 
The Berkshires will see flurries during the day but the Nor'easter will make its entrance later in the evening, first in South County between 5 and 8 and then moving north.
 
Vermont schoolchildren will be starting their winter vacation Monday but Berkshire kids will be headed back to school. But they might be getting an extra vacation day — Greylock Snow Day still has an 80 percent probability for of delays, but upgraded the chance of a snow to 90 percent for South County and 75 percent for north. 
 
With the storm sweeping in by Sunday afternoon, we'll be on the lookout for any cancellations. This post will also be updated if new information becomes available. 
 
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