AMHERST — Family fun, education and entertainment are expected to be part of the Amherst Sustainability Festival, being held for the 12th time on the Town Common on Saturday.

Running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the festival will have a number of vendors, with some focused on renewable energy and others on supplying energy efficiency products. Advocacy groups and municipal committees will be set up to provide information, along with artisans selling sustainable crafts.

The event, which returned last year after being postponed for three years during the pandemic, includes stage performers, starting at 11 a.m. with Asher Kai, and continuing on the hour: at noon with Luke DeRoy, at 1 p.m. with Chris Scanlon, at 2 p.m. with The Frost Heaves and Hales, and at 3 p.m. with Caylin Lee.

A demonstration area will have Piti Theater’s Story Wizards, an interactive theater, at 11:30 a.m., followed by a restorative justice workshop “Creating a Sustainable Community” at 1 p.m., led by Pamela Nolan Young, who directs the town’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department, along with community responders Brittany Haughton, Kat Newman and Vanessa Phillip. Then, at 2 p.m., Valley FLOW and Juggling takes place.

Others parts of the festival include stilt walking by Henry the Juggler, reusable bag making with Sue Morrello, and face-painting by Peacock's Nest Body Arts. The town’s new hybrid ambulance will be shown, along with electric vehicle models.

The Sustainability Festival coincides with the opening of the Amherst Farmers Market, which will be on Spring Street starting at 8 a.m., continuing a tradition of local producers selling fruit and vegetables and other goods that began in 1972.

Support for transfer fee on real estate

Amherst’s Municipal Affordable Housing Trust is joining officials in other area communities, including Northampton, Easthampton, Deerfield and Greenfield, in supporting a transfer fee on real estate transactions that’s enabled in the state’s Affordable Homes Act.

“We strongly believe that this critical tool will give our communities the ability to address local housing needs, and further our partnership with the commonwealth as we work to address our housing challenges together,” reads the letter to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing. “The extreme housing costs that residents across the commonwealth face today are the direct result of decades of underfunding and underproducing the housing that those residents need.”

Carol Lewis, who co-chairs the Amherst trust, signed the letter on its behalf. If approved, the transfer fee would be by local option and would be assessed on high-end real estate transactions.

Senior center fundraisers

Friends of the Amherst Senior Center are selling tickets for $5 apiece for its first calendar raffle, taking place during the month of May, to benefit various programs.

Drawings begin May 1 at the Senior Center at the Bangs Community Center. Winners will have their tickets returned to the spinning drum for more chances to win some of the $1,300 in prizes.

Tickets can be purchased at the Senior Center office weekdays and also at the Amherst Farmers Market on both Saturday and on April 27, with the Friendsgroup  setting up a table to distribute literature about available senior services. Those interested in purchasing tickets can also contact Council on Aging member Dennis Vandal at dennisvandal@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, in Hadley, a tag and bake sale is at the Senior Center, 46 Middle St., on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., with some of the items including whimsical salt and pepper shakers, sports memorabilia, glassware, a hanging stained glass lamp, a sunflower teapot and cups set, an eclectic collection of DVDs and two antique vases.

Talk on Transcendentalism

Tufts professor and biographer Julie Dobrow will speak Sunday at 2 p.m. at Munson Memorial Library on the Transcendentalist Movement, an event postponed from the Amherst Historical Society’s annual meeting in February.

“The Transcendentalists’ Call: Mabel Loomis Todd, the Thoreaus, and Emily Dickinson” is the title of the talk focusing on Todd, who edited the poetry of Dickinson and had a 13-year affair with Austin Dickinson.

Concert and conversation

“Unsilenced — Hearing Afghanistan Today” is the title of a conversation and chamber music concert with the Arson Fahim & Cuatro Puntos Ensemble on Sunday.

The event, at First Church Amherst, 165 Main St., is part of the church’s Music on Main events. A pre-concert conversation with Fahim, an activist composer, is at 1:15 p.m., with the concert starting at 2 p.m. Suggested $20 donations can be made at the door.

Grants from the Amherst, South Hadley and Pelham cultural councils are supporting the event.

For more information, contact First Church at Firstchurchamherst@comcast.net or call 413-253-3456.

Meetings, virtual except where noted

SATURDAY: Four Towns Meeting, 9:30 a.m., middle school library.

MONDAY: Munson Memorial Building trustees and Jones Library trustees, both at 9 a.m. 

TUESDAY: Joint Regional and Union 26 school committees, 7:30 p.m., high school library.

WEDNESDAY: Regional School Committee, 7:30 p.m., high school library.

THURSDAY: Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.; Joint Regional and Union 26 school committees, 7:30 p.m., high school library.