Jacob's Pillow 2025 Festival Canceled

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
09:50PM / Tuesday, August 05, 2025Print Story | Email Story

Kat Sirico

BECKET, Mass. — Jacob's Pillow has canceled its 2025 festival following the death of one of its production managers.

"We have come to this difficult decision following the tragic accident on our campus on August 1. Ticket buyers affected by the cancellations will receive refunds," the venue posted to its Facebook page Tuesday evening.

"For 93 years, Jacob's Pillow has been a haven for dance and a community dedicated to its creation, presentation, education, and preservation. We look forward to welcoming audiences back to our campus."

The "tragic accident," resulting in the death of Kathryn "Kat" Sirico, occurred outdoors in the early afternoon Friday.

Sirico and a summer intern were using a dolly to move platforms for staging a theater when they lost control of the dolly on a slope. Sirico tripped, fell and was run over by the dolly. Bystanders attempted life-saving measures. An investigation ruled it a work-place accident.

"Kat was a Pillow alum and an essential and hugely devoted leader on our team," Executive and Artistic Director Pamela Tatge said. "Their spirit, generosity, and dedication touched the lives of many. We are holding their family, friends, and colleagues in our hearts as we grieve together."

Sirico, 40, was a lecturer at the University of Rochester's Dance and Movement program and an events production manager at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival the last several years.

Their career included collaborations with a number of companies in production design and management, including as production manager at the Fisher Center at Bard College. They earned a bachelor's degree in theater arts from Nazareth University and attended the Yale University School of Drama.

Sirico had most recently been working in the newly built Doris Duke Theater, which opened a month ago.

Their tragic death led to Friday's performances being canceled, then the weekend and now the season, bringing a 2025 season that had started as a joyful celebration to a sad ending.

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Friperie Berkshires Moves to New Great Barrington Location

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:27PM / Tuesday, February 10, 2026

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Friperie Berkshires has moved to new quarters on Bridge Street and will reopen this Friday, Feb. 13.

Owner Elizabeth Conkey has relocated her store from Lee above the Berkshire Co-op at 34 Bridge St., in Suite 101.

The space is twice the size of her former spot in Lee, which is better for her, she said, because she needed it to add more services for her customers.

"I've been looking for a permanent space to land, and this space is perfect, because it's twice the size of where I was and I needed more room because I'm going to start doing men's and children's clothing as well," she said.

Besides adding more clothing, she will also be implementing a wardrobe service for her customers.

"In addition to just constantly stocking the store and finding treasures, I started offering a capsule wardrobe service," Conkey said. "So it has three tiers, and basically, people can hire me depending on what tier of offering they're interested in, and I will go and thrift specifically for them based on a mood board that they send me from Pinterest, or just a file folder of photos that they like."

Conkey kept the Lee storefront through the summer and had been renting a space in Great Barrington from a friend. She finally found her new space around New Year's, and will be launching a website.

She is excited to open just a short distance from where she was.

"I've really grown pretty exponentially in the past six months. I'm launching a website. I'm so thrilled with the growth. So it just seems like appropriate to finally move into the forever space, and have room to spread out and offer more categories of clothing," she said.

She also wanted to express her gratitude for her customers and friends' support to keep her dream alive.

"I am just so grateful to the people who have continued to shop in my store from the day it opened. Through the holidays, I had an incredible holiday season, and I just felt so grateful to everybody for telling their friends at my store, sharing about what they bought on Instagram, encouraging co-workers to come in," Conkey said. "It's been such a gift to feel welcomed by the community, and I feel like now my customers are becoming my friends, and I'm just excited to start this new chapter and never have to move all of this inventory ever again."

She will be open Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. She encourages people to check her Instagram for updates on clothes and her store.

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