For the past two years, Pittsfield, Massachusetts has been without Third Thursday – the celebration that brings food, music, and artisans to the heart of Berkshire County’s urban hub through the spring and summer. After years of being held on North Street, Pittsfield’s main thoroughfare, Third Thursday will return this spring at a different location. On May 19th, the first of four monthly events will take place at the First Street Common, a public greenspace next to the downtown strip. WAMC spoke with Pittsfield Cultural Development Director Jen Glockner.
GLOCKNER: Third Thursday has evolved a lot over the years. But the original intent of Third Thursday was to bring people back downtown. I think back in the days of [General Electric], people would cruise around downtown on Thursday. I think there was payday, I heard it was payday on Thursdays, come downtown, cruise around and go out to eat, go shopping with the new paycheck that you just received, way back in the day. So that was the original intent. About 15 years ago, it started off just on the sidewalks downtown. Eventually, the street closed downtown. And then it's evolved over the years in many ways. But yeah, it was to bring people out on a Thursday night in the summer.
WAMC: Now, this year, it's going to look a little different in downtown Pittsfield. Walk us through this- What's Third Thursday 2022 going to look like?
Of course. We're so excited that Third Thursday is going to be at the Common. Third Thursday at the Common debuts on May 19th for the first of four season events, all at the Common. The Common has been one of the biggest gems in Pittsfield. And you know, the renovations and the restorations were unveiled a few years back. And we've just been working with the Parks Department to say, what can we do there? What do you think? What should we do? And this is the year that we have said, we're moving Third Thursday. We've been talking to them on and off for the last few years to say, you know, when are you ready for us to do bigger things at the Common, and we really just feel like now's the time. It's been two years of no Third Thursday. We've had some virtual events, but we were just keeping it safe and didn't want people to gather during the pandemic. And it was ready for a revitalization of sorts, a facelift. And we just think that Third Thursdays at the Common is going to be wonderful. You're going to walk into that beautiful space and see all of the artisans, vendors set up, a pottery wheel, but then there's already built-in basketball courts and the splash pad and the playground, and the beautiful main stage where we'll have live entertainment, food by food trucks. It just is the most natural setting for Third Thursday.
Beyond the infrastructure things you mentioned earlier about the Common, what else informed that move from North Street to the Common?
Well, it was just really wanting to take advantage of the Common and just make everybody understand what a gem that is. But we also, as I mentioned earlier, things have evolved over the last almost 15 years. Third Thursday's original intent is different than it might be now. And there are merchants downtown that closed during Third Thursday, because of certain things. And so we really did, before we announced this and officially made the move, we really did work with the merchant community through Downtown Pittsfield Inc. and directly talking to the ones who are open for Third Thursday, like Berkshire General Store, and they said, we really think this is a good move. Because the best thing ever is, the Common is one and a half blocks from all of these restaurants that are amazing and the live music in the theaters. So we are going to really work hard with Downtown Pittsfield Inc. and the merchants and the cultural organizations and the live music venues to say to everyone that comes to Third Thursday, make a complete night of it. Walk that block and a half and go to the restaurants like you would do during Third Thursday. Before grab something before, during, stop at Third Thursday and then go, or afterwards. There's award-winning theaters within a few blocks, just as there always has been. So go to those theater shows, go downtown for live music. It's just, we really feel like it's a seamless transition and it will just be an amazing collaboration between Downtown Pittsfield Inc., the merchants, the cultural organizations, the live music venues, and the city of Pittsfield.
What are you going to use as the metric of success to determine whether or not this new look at Third Thursday will be the path forward or not?
I think that it will be known- If you build it, they will come. I think that's the metric we'll use which we do with many of our events. We're going to see how many people come to the event, and we'll see, you know, how many vendors show up. We really are trying to transition this as the Office of Cultural Development’s event to a more artisan-focused vendor. So we want makers, we want artists, we want crafters, we want interactive activities for everybody that comes to Third Thursday. So I think the success will be measured in how many vendors come to be a part of this and also how many people come to see Third Thursday and come out this event.
