Dog Mountain cancels summer festival as St. Johnsbury floods wreak havoc

Updated at 1:13 on Friday, Aug. 2

Dog Mountain in St. Johnsbury has canceled its “summer dog party” planned for Saturday following another round of flooding in the region.  A concert scheduled for Sunday on the grounds will go on but has been relocated from Dog Mountain to an arena in Lyndonville.

Saturday’s event should have seen the grounds filled with musicians, local food vendors and, above all, dogs. The annual gathering has been taking place for more than two decades, according to Dog Mountain managing director Ali Ide. When the weather has been good, she said, as many as 1,000 people have attended.

But on Tuesday, the second flood of the month proved disastrous for the 150-acre property. The roads leading up to the chapel and art gallery became inaccessible, according to Ide.

As a result, Sunday’s event, part of a weekly series of popular free concerts organized by the regional nonprofit Catamount Arts, will now be held at the Fenton Chester Arena in Lyndonville rather than its normal home at Dog Mountain, the organization announced.

Artist Stephen Huneck bought the Dog Mountain property with his wife, Gwen, in 1995, using the barn as a studio space, according to the organization’s website. Stephen, who was widely known for his dog-related wood carvings, ultimately constructed a dog-themed chapel on the property.

Along with festivities modeled after the founders’ small gatherings before their deaths, Stephen’s work can also be found in a gallery on the mountain.

The flooding three weeks ago had already inflicted significant damage to the property. “We had just repaired everything,” Ide said. But Tuesday’s rain was “quite a bit worse.”

Staff have had to travel by foot to conduct initial damage assessments due to the washed-out roads. The banks of a large pond on the property collapsed, Ide said, and several private roadways were decimated by the resulting torrent.

One house at the bottom of the property was “taken off its foundation,” she said, and separated from the attached garage.

The pond alone could require $140,000 to reconstruct, Ide said, and it’s hard to estimate how much the total repair cost will be. “It’s been extremely stressful and difficult,” she said.

The damage has also been tough on nearby businesses. Chris Parker, co-owner of Makin’ Maple, was scheduled to sell his products at Saturday’s party. He lives just 3 miles from Dog Mountain and said he was disappointed the festival had been canceled.

“It’s one of my biggest events,” he said. “Plus, I like dogs.”

He bought a significant amount of product in preparation for Saturday at Dog Mountain. In addition to his usual offerings, he also makes maple lemonade. “Now I got these lemons,” he said.

Parker said he’s seen the festival draw in significant crowds from out of state. “They come and they see what it’s like up here, and they just are utterly amazed with it,” he said.

The property will be closed at least until Sunday — possibly longer, Ide said. But more than anything, she said, she hates to cancel events that are important to the community.

“It’s really sad that we’ve had to be closed now,” she said.

The free concerts, called the Levitt AMP St. Johnsbury Music Series, continue through the end of August and will return to Dog Mountain if that is possible, Catamount Arts Executive Director Jody Fried told VTDigger on Friday. In the meantime, the shows will go on at the arena in Lyndonville, which has been the “extreme weather” backup location for the series since the July 2023 floods, he said.

Catamount Arts had to relocate one concert in last year’s series to the arena, and one concert after flooding last month, Fried said. They held one show back at Dog Mountain before Tuesday’s flooding hit. This time, it remains unclear when the shows can return.

“We just don’t know. We won’t even have road access to the venue until the middle or end of next week,” Fried said. “We would love to be back up there next week, but we just don’t know.”

The organization will have updates about the location of upcoming shows on its website, social media and email lists, Fried said.

A regional flood recovery group will be on hand at Sunday’s show, featuring a Delta blues band, to share resources, and donation buckets for Dog Mountain, Catamount Arts said in a press release.

“We’re using the harmonic power of music to help our community come together and heal from natural disasters,” Fried said in the release.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Dog Mountain cancels summer festival as St. Johnsbury floods wreak havoc .