Last year I was walking my dog around and I heard music in Winooski. Usually a pretty quiet town, I was very curious about what was going on. I walk down the hill to see this giant music festival. My friend and I quickly got our tickets to Waking Windows and had our favorite weekend in Winooski we had since we moved there.

Waking Windows started as a small 12 day festival at The Monkey House in 2011. Now it has turned into a multi-venue, multi-city series of events promoting music, comedy, art, food, and drink.

What I loved about this event is there was always something going on. Every restaurant and shop in Winooski gets taken over by amazing music. This festival does not just have music they also feature artists, food trucks, page burner reading series, cringe! A night of hilarious Humiliation, and Karaoke.

The venues for Waking Windows are Asian Bistro, Four Quarters Brewing, McKee’s Pub and Grill, Misery Loves. CO, Mule Bar, Lucky Cloud, Nectar and Root, Last Stop Sports Bar, Winooski State Park, Scout and Co, 41 Main, The Monkey House, Waterworks, The Outdoor Main Stage on Winooski Falls way, and Winooski Methodist Church.

The reason I say this is a can’t miss event because of the environment of the festival. Every musician I saw last year was having the time of their life, which made the crowd even better. The whole festival was incredibly well organized and extremely easy to get to being in the Burlington area.