Tom Rosenbauer on the big screen. The tent out on the lot.

The Battenkill Fly Fishing & Arts Festival ran May 3 through May 5, 2024, at Arlington Common.  The weekend had fly tying, casting, including the Battenkill Cup, tours at the Orvis rod shop, conservation work for the watershed, and the Mountains, Valleys and Rivers art exhibit.  Tom Rosenbauer gave the keynote.  Evenings went to live music and Lawson’s Microbrew tent.

In the Performing Arts Center we put a screen in black drape, with speakers on either side.  Two MacBooks and a Blu-ray player fed the screen through a switcher at the tech table.  Friday, Lawson’s tent opened at 4:00.  At 7:00 Beverly Smith gave the kickoff, and at 7:30 the International Fly Fishing Film Festival ran through 9:30.

Saturday at 10:00, Bill Bullock and Jared Carpenter opened the Trout Unlimited regional meeting with the state of the Battenkill.  Tom Rosenbauer followed at 11:00.  The afternoon was Mike Valla on John Atherton’s flies, John Burrows on Atlantic salmon in Maine, John Shaner, an Argentina talk from Estancia Calefu, and Keith Curley.  Saints and Liars played at 7:30, with the room washed in color and the speakers still up.  Sunday the films came back at 11:30.

Fly tying needed a closer look than the back row could get, so a camera on a tripod fed a monitor beside the table, Saturday afternoon and again Sunday morning.  A speaker and a microphone covered Lawson’s tent.  The next year is 2025.  The year before is 2023.