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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South County Farm Grows Community

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:50PM / Wednesday, August 05, 2026

TYRINGHAM, Mass. — Woven Roots Farm offered the ideal venue for the message Massachusetts' commissioner of agriculture wanted to deliver: the barn.

That is where Commissioner Ashley Randle addressed a group of about two dozen attendees at Berkshire Grown's Berkshire Farm Tour.

"With everything that is happening around us, it can feel very disheartening and very heavy," Randle said Wednesday after the group shared a meal in Woven Roots' community gathering room. "And two things that I've talked about have been leading in community and with compassion.

"And, certainly, Woven Roots has embodied that every day."

Jen and Pete Salinetti founded Woven Roots at the turn of the 20th century on a quarter acre of land they owned in Lee.

Today, they have almost 850 garden beds on 2 and a half acres in Tyringham, where they moved full-time in 2014.

The community-supported agriculture farm produces 70 crops and produces enough food for 1,600 people per week, Jen Salinetti said while leading a tour of the property the couple leases on McCarty Road.

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