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Choco-Fest Activities Set

Fri, Aug 19, 2011

Activities for the revived Great Chocolate Train Festival on the village green from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 24 include a blend of chocolate and train-themed exhibits and events, according to the Partnership for Community Development (PCD), the event's organizer.

The festival is a celebration of the historic railroad chocolate spill of 1955 when an Oswego & Western train filled with Nestle's Crunch Bars and Nestle's Quik derailed in the village. The PCD held a similar event several years ago.

The festival will feature three main activity tents:

  • The Family Fun Zone sponsored by Oneida Savings Bank will  include chocolate related arts, crafts and games.
  • The History Tent, sponsored by Price Chopper, is presented by the Hamilton Historical Society and will contain memorabilia, documentation and artifacts from the wreck There will be a . It will panel discussion about the wreck and a special presentation honoring Henry Harter and Bill Wilcox who were instrumental in preserving the memory of the event. It will also include exhibits by HCS students.
  • The Movie Tent, sponsored by Syracuse New Times and Family Times, will feature a documentary about the wreck by Ed Volmer.

In addition to the three main tents, local artist David Grace will be carving a train out of a large block of chocolate. 

Additional festival activities include:

  • tastings from a variety of specialty chocolate vendors,
  • model train exhibits,
  • free instant photo center,
  • kiddy train rides and amusements,
  • a presentation from Northeast Classic Car Museum,
  • downtown chocolate dessert contest,
  • hands-freechocolate pudding contests,
  • and chocolate cooking demonstrations.

The culmination of the festival will be a reenactment of the wreck. Using 1½” scale operating freight train cars (supplied by the Model Railroad group of the Central New York Chapter, National Railway Historical Society) and 3,000 mini Nestle Crunch bars, the
cars will dump Nestle Crunch bars onto the village green. Children will have the chance to grab as many of the candy bars as they can.

The event is free and open to the public. 

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