The first weekend of August is one of the fullest on the Vermont calendar, and this year it's front-loaded with the stuff that actually makes this state worth living in: a 95-year-old town fair, two separate blueberry celebrations at opposite ends of the map, and free outdoor music in four counties. The Champlain Valley Fair is still a month out and Franklin County Field Days is dark this year, which leaves the small towns to carry the weekend — and they're carrying it just fine. Here's where to point the car.

Friday, July 31

Danville throws the biggest party of the weekend, and it starts tonight. The 95th Annual Danville Fair opens on the town green from 6 to 9 p.m. with a street dance featuring Shawn Theriault and the Green Mountain Saints. Admission is free, which is worth saying twice for a fair this size. The Danville Chamber has the full two-day schedule.

Twenty minutes east, St. Johnsbury closes Railroad Street to cars for Final Fridays, running 5 to 8 p.m. with a street fair, gallery stroll, food vendors and a beer garden under the theme "All Together Now." At 7 p.m. the Catamount Arts mobile stage hosts Kyshona as part of the Levitt AMP series — free, outdoors, and one of the better bookings the Kingdom has landed this summer. Two towns, one road, no cover charge either place.

Downtown Rutland does its own version. Friday Night Live returns 5 to 10 p.m. with Center Street and Merchants Row closed to traffic, open-air vendors, food trucks, live music and kids' activities. It's week four of six from the Downtown Rutland Partnership, and the format has settled into something genuinely good.

Down in the Deerfield Valley, the Vermont Blueberry Festival kicks off today and runs through August 9 across Wilmington, Dover and Jacksonville — ten days of blue-themed everything, from pick-your-own to restaurant specials to a car show. The Southern Vermont Deerfield Valley Chamber coordinates it with Boyd Family Farm.

In Montpelier, Lost Nation Theater has Sondheim's Into the Woods at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall, with a ten-actor cast directed by Kianna Bromley. It closes Sunday, so this is your last realistic shot. And over in Newport, the MAC Center for the Arts hosts Art in Bloom Friday evening starting at 5 p.m., $10 at the door — details via Discover Newport.

If you'd rather be on the water than in a crowd, the NorthWoods Stewardship Center in East Charleston runs Exploring Forest Ecology by Canoe from 4:45 to 7:30 p.m., a sunset paddle led by Vermont Woodlands staff with boats and gear provided. Registration required — NorthWoods has the sign-up.

Saturday, August 1

Danville goes all day. The fair runs 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., anchored by the Grand Street Parade at 10:30 a.m., with the Bear Crawl 5K at 9, Vendor Alley until 4, a Kid's Zone, and live music on the stage straight through to close — Danville Town Band, Alive and Well, Sleeveless Tease, Sam and Matt, and Sideshow. Full lineup at the Danville Chamber.

Southern Vermont answers with berries. The Big Blue Parade rolls down Route 100 in Dover, from the Town Office to American Flatbread, as the centerpiece of the Blueberry Festival's opening weekend. Up north, Craftsbury runs its own Blueberry Festival alongside the Craftsbury Farmers Market on the Common, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with fresh-picked berries and family activities — the Barton Chronicle has it on the Kingdom calendar. Two blueberry festivals, 140 miles apart, same Saturday. Only in Vermont.

The best show in the state today comes courtesy of Glover. Bread & Puppet Theater brings The Upside Down World Circus to Retreat Farm in Brattleboro at 4 p.m., gates at 3, as part of Next Stage Arts' Bandwagon Summer Series — The Commons has the writeup. Towering puppets, brass band, stilt dancers, and kids under 12 free at the outdoor Bandwagon shows.

Killington stacks two free things on top of each other. VMBA Days takes over Snowshed with a vendor village 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., guided rides, Bike Bum racing and an après party — details here — and then the Cooler in the Mountains series brings Brooklyn Afrofunk outfit Gentleman Brawlers to the K-1 base area from 3 to 5:45 p.m., free and all ages, with Ray Boston opening. Killington makes the rain call by 11 a.m.

Ludlow leans the other direction. Taps & Tastes returns to Okemo's Jackson Gore courtyard 4 to 8 p.m. with 50-plus regional craft beers and ciders, live music from BoomBox, food, and the Adventure Zone open throughout. Rain or shine — the Vermont Journal has the particulars.

Bellows Falls celebrates Rockingham Old Home Days, with the main community festival running 4 to 9 p.m. — local vendors, community groups, live entertainment, food and demonstrations — plus fish ladder programming at the Bellows Falls dam from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Commons has the weekend rundown.

Elsewhere: the Halcyon Chorale sings at the York Street Meeting House in Lyndonville at 7 p.m., a program of contemporary composer Hamid Mardkhanjari plus Arvo Pärt, Caroline Shaw and Balkan folk songs, presented by the Upright Steeple Society via Catamount Arts — $15 advance, students free. Monday Nights Theatre Co. stages a five-actor Romeo & Juliet at the Grange Hall Cultural Center in Waterbury Center at 2 p.m., with each actor covering three to five roles; details here. Camp Meade in Middlesex hosts the first-ever Jest Fest, an all-ages comedy festival with the Vermont Comedy All Stars, listed all day on the Mad River Valley calendar. And the Vermont Psychic Expo sets up in Expo North at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction from 10 a.m., running both days.

For the far corner of the state, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and NorthWoods run the Brunswick Area Butterfly Blitz, meeting at 10 a.m. at the East Charleston center before heading into Brunswick and Ferdinand to survey for the Second Vermont Butterfly Atlas. No experience needed, all ages, and it's the rare Essex County listing that isn't a town meeting — via the Barton Chronicle.

Market-wise, the Champlain Islands Farmers' Market is at St. Joseph's in Grand Isle 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — details here — the Northwest Farmers Market fills Taylor Park in St. Albans from 9 a.m., and the Middlebury Farmers Market runs 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Exchange Street.

One to know about even though you can't go: Hill Farmstead's Festival of Farmhouse Ales in Greensboro Bend is noon to 4 p.m. and sold out. The taproom is closed for it, but the bottle shop stays open 11:30 to 5 for to-go.

Sunday, August 2

St. Johnsbury closes its weekend the way it opened it — free and outside. Levitt AMP brings Philadelphia alt-pop songwriter Noah Richardson to Dog Mountain at 5 p.m., dog-friendly as always, with a free shuttle from the Welcome Center at 4. Catamount Arts presents.

Middlebury throws Foodaroo 11 at Marble Works Riverfront Park from 4 to 8 p.m. — roughly 25 Vermont food vendors, the All Night Boogie Band, the Red Trouser Show, Wacky Chad, two King Arthur baking contests and a beverage garden. Five bucks cash at the gate, kids 12 and under free. Middlebury UndergrounD runs it, and they've confirmed they're on for the 2nd.

In Stowe, the Spin Doctors play the WhistlePig Pavilion at 6 p.m. via Spruce Peak Arts — tickets from about $17. Earlier in the day the Stowe Farmers Market runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Mountain Road.

Manchester Music Festival presents HerStory: In Harmony at 4 p.m. in the Arkell Pavilion at the Southern Vermont Arts Center, a program built around women's contributions to music and dedicated to violinist Marie Setzer, one of the first women in the Cleveland Orchestra. MMF has tickets.

Greensboro gets a heavyweight: Julia Alvarez reads from Visitation at the Highland Center for the Arts at 3 p.m. as part of the Back Roads Readings series. And in Holland, the Historical Society hosts Old Home Day from noon to 2 p.m. — ham, beans, coleslaw and homemade pie for $10, proceeds to the building repair fund. The Barton Chronicle has both, and keeps the Kingdom calendar honest better than anyone.

Rockingham marks the 250th with its Annual Meeting House Pilgrimage — a fife and drum muster to the cemetery honoring the town's Revolutionary War veterans, a public reading of the Declaration, and a closing sing-along. Free. Timed to August 2, 1776, the day most delegates actually signed. The Commons has the details.

And in the Mad River Valley, Big Picture Theater in Waitsfield screens the 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory at 4 p.m., with a Sunday Funday Burger Bash on the lawn from 5.

Thirteen counties, three days, and the small towns doing the heavy lifting — as usual. Go find your people out there.