image description — Last year's Eagle Street Beach Party drew tons of sand and families.

Eagle Street Beach Party And Fiesta Returns Friday

Staff Reports12:29PM / Monday, July 09, 2012Print Story | Email Story

Children spent the day having fun at the beach during last years event. For more photos of last year's party, check out the slideshow.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Eagle Street will transform into a beach on Friday, July 13, as the city will host a double event — the Eagle Street Beach Party and the Mexican Fiesta.

The beach event, which originated in 1999, will take place from 3:30 p.m. until 6:30. More than 250,000 pounds of sand, donated by Specialty Minerals and delivered by the city, will be spread curb-to-curb down the entire street.

Everyone who stops in will receive a prize or a toy. Mildred Elley donated 250 sand pails and shovels while Adams Community Bank will supply the beach balls. Many of the Eagle Street vendors will be giving away gift certificates and other prizes to sand sculptors with the most creative castles or sculptures. No experience in necessary and while spraypaint is not allowed, food dye is. In addition, Persnickity Toys will host a limbo contest with toy prizes awarded to the winners.

Afterwards, from 7 p.m. until 10, the third annual Mexican Fiesta will follow with live music by Misguided, margaritas and Coronas. (Make sure you bring your ID.) Dress is casual and Desporados, Jack's Hot Dog Stand, Village Pizza and Supreme Pizza and Wings will provide the food.

The rain date is set for July 20. After the event, the sand will be used at local playgrounds and parks, including Windsor Lake.

Tags: beach party, fiesta,

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Western Mass Arts Summit Focuses on Economics, Sustainability

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
06:36AM / Saturday, November 15, 2025

State Sen. Paul Mark, Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, hosted the event to bring together creatives and state agencies to talk collaboration and support.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — More than 100 stakeholders in the creative economy spent an afternoon sharing ideas, stories and strategies for sustaining the state's cultural identity.

The Western Massachusetts Arts Economic Impact Summit brought creatives from the nonprofit, for-profit and governmental worlds together at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts to talk housing, energy, grants and funding, training and retaining, partnerships and sustaining.

Belchertown Select Board member Jennifer Turner came to North Adams to hear what other communities are doing to sustain their creative development. Her town had built a strong foundation for arts and culture as an economic driver but is struggling as it's run out of resources.

"We've been using a lot of ARPA funding to fund a lot of initiatives, and we use our volunteer economy mostly, but a lot of them are getting burnt out," she said. "So it's always trying to come up with a different alternative."

She found like-minded people and is going home with "tons of ideas."

"Just networking and talking to others about the struggles that they're finding in their organizations, whether it be municipality or other," said Turner. "There was somebody who brought up a civic leadership transitional program in the city of Lowell, which is very interesting. For me, that's like a key takeaway, you know, to look into models that are existing across the state, that are working."

That's what state Sen. Paul Mark hoped would happen. The Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development pushed for the summit after speaking with people from Western Mass during a Creative Economy Day at the State House and with local artists.

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