Dozens of people celebrated art, community, and the fall season at Housatonic Valley Waldorf School’s (HVWS) annual Harvest Festival on Friday, November 7 and Saturday, November 8.

The event kicked off Friday night with an adults-only vendor market featuring local artisans, food, and live music. However, the festivities really kicked into high gear the following day.

The clear blue sky, coupled with the gentle breeze, made it the perfect day for everyone to enjoy the various activities and other stations set up throughout the school grounds.

Off near the entrance were two food trucks serving food for everyone to enjoy. Guests stayed warm thanks to Batchy Brew of Torrington and The Pizza Truck, which served coffee and pizza respectively. Right nearby was the HVWS bake sale and farm tent featuring goods from The Hickories, a Ridgefield-based farm owned by Dina Brewster and Garth Harries.

Beyond the entrance were several stations featuring games such as ring toss and can knock-down, as well as arts and crafts such as face painting and bracelet making. Guests could also “join the circus” with mobile circus arts and entertainment group Circus Moves, where they could try their luck balancing plates or walking a tightrope.

People were also free to roam the rest of the school grounds, with parents watching their children excitedly run through the playground. They could also stay warm at the fire pit, a new addition to the Harvest Festival this year.

The festivities continued inside the school, where approximately 17 local artisans and vendors sold goods such as jewelry, artwork, clothes, crystals, toys, and more.

All the while, local musician Dan Tressler sang as he played his guitar and violin.

For HVWS Development Coordinator Jessica Preece, the Harvest Festival was all she hoped for and more. The idea, she said, is that they are all coming together as a community to take a break, support each other, and enjoy good company.

“When you have children, it’s so easy to feel stuck in the daily grind of getting your kids ready for school and going to work every single day,” Preece said. “So the harvest festival is a way for all of us to experience autumn together.”

The Harvest Festival is a longstanding tradition of HVWS since 2010, according to Preece. This year’s festival is particularly special, as it combines the school’s beloved Fall Fair and Winter Market into one event. Preece said this is how the Harvest Festival used to be when it started.

“For the last two years since I’ve been in this position, we’ve kept the two events separate, but this year we really wanted to shake things up,” Preece explained. “We wanted to combine them this year as a way to get more people to come together.”

Preece said the Harvest Festival doubles as a fundraiser for HVWS, as guests buy tickets to use at different activities throughout the school grounds.

To that end, the event is also incredibly community-driven. The Pizza Truck is run by an alumni family, who returned to the festival for their third year in a row. Brewster and Harries, who own The Hickories farm, are another HVWS family. Tressler is a neighbor to an HVWS family, and is also a cousin of the school’s first grade teacher.

“We’re just trying to grow it every year, make it festive, and have it be a way for people outside our community to learn more about us,” Preece explained.

To Preece, seeing the community come out in full force to support HVWS is the best part. Instead of seeing parents or caretakers in the drop-off line, for once, she could see everyone walking around the campus, talking amongst themselves, and relaxing together.

“You know, we’ve been in school for two months at this point, so it’s like we can slow down and ask, ‘Hey, how’s it going? How’s everybody doing in school?’ We really get to touch base with everyone,” Preece said.

This sense of community is incredibly important to HVWS, according to Preece. HVWS holds the unique distinction of being Connecticut’s only accredited Waldorf grade school. Waldorf schools, Preece said, focus on “looking at the whole child and meeting them where they’re at developmentally.”

The school is structured from early childhood through eighth grade, specifically taking into account where children are from ages 0 to 7 and ages 7 to 14.

Preece said Waldorf education was created by philosopher and lecturer Rudolf Steiner. Based on Steiner’s pedagogy, Preece said people can see the changes in a child from ages 0-7, where they live in imagination, and later ages 7-14, where they live in beauty.

“And then that’s sort of how you approach the teaching methods, but we’re also very nature-based. We’re screen-free classrooms. We’re meeting the children where they are and teaching with purpose, so the festival is a natural extension of that,” Preece said.

Jordan Wittmer, who is a graduate of HVWS, was one of the many vendors who sold goods at the festival. She had various items, from crocheted chickens to stained glass, on sale. The best part about coming back, Wittmer said, is seeing everyone she spent a lot of time with when she was in school.

“Just seeing everyone again, knowing that they still remember me, it’s nice to show them that I’ve put my Waldorf skills like painting and watercolor to use,” Wittmer said.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.