Saturday, May 11th | 10:30AM - 4PM
Lower New Haven Green, Downtown New Haven, CT

What is the “Wake Up the Green” Spring Festival??

The Committee of the Proprietors of the Common and Undivided Lands in New Haven will be celebrating Wake Up the Green Spring Festival on Saturday, May 11 from 10:30-4PM on the New Haven Green. The event will mark the start of spring and encourage the citizens of New Haven to get out and enjoy our beautiful city and the New Haven Green! To open the event, a reenactment of Powder House Day is held, taking place at 10:30 AM. To learn more about Powder House Day, read more below.

Wake Up the Green is family-friendly, leashed pet-friendly, and open to all! Community activities are free to participate in with options to shop from local vendors and purchase food & drink. Enjoy performances from the Hillhouse Band & Amistad Band throughout the day.

Mother's Day Market

Welcome to the first Wake Up the Green Mothers Day Market! Shop from 10 local vendors and their hand-crafted and curated items, perfect for celebrating your Mother's Day Weekend.

Vendors include: MELT Chocolatier, Fine Fettle Pets, East Street Arts, Beacon Craft Studio, Radiant Art, Joyce's painting, The Peace, Love, Books! Bus, Indiigo Culture, Tinaliah Designs, & Knitten Word

Food by: Blue Orchid Thai

Event Schedule

Activities & Games

9AM - Clean the Green with the Friends of the New Haven Green - Interested in joining? Sign up here.

10-11AM - Powder House Day on the Lower New Haven Green

11AM - Brief remarks with the Proprietors of the New Haven Green, The New Haven Garden Club, & more to Wake Up the Green!

11AM - Wake Up the Green activities & Mother's Day Market - See full list of activities & vendors below!

11-1PM - Drop-in Tiffany Stained Glass Tours at Trinity On the Green

12-2PM - Crypt Tours at 12PM, 1PM & 2PM at Center Church

12-3PM - Goat & farm animal petting zoo with Circle K Farms

12-4PM - Reptile Petting Zoo with City Ranger's, Ranger Leanne & Ranger Harry's
12-4PM - Adult Volleyball on The Green with the City of New Haven's Youth & Recreation Department

2PM - All Ages Yoga on The Green with the City of New Haven's Youth & Recreation Department

4PM - Event ends - Happy Spring! See you next year!

Center Church on the Green - Crypt Tours (tour times coming soon!)

Trinity Church on the Green - Stained Glass Tours 11-1PM

UConn Master Gardeners Program - "Ask A Master Gardener" for plant and gardening advice!

Town Green District - Lawn games, board games & picnic area by @DowntownNHV

New Haven Sketchers - Outdoor community sketching activity

Ely Center of Contemporary Art & EcoWorks - Community art project

Ives Squared at the New Haven Free Public LIbrary - Make your own stamped bookmarks and sign up for a free library card

New Haven Reads - Grab a free book and pick a spot to read

City Climb Gym - Family-friendly stepping stone obstacle course with fun prizes
Friends of the New Haven Green & the New Haven Garden Club - Grab a wildflower seed packet and information on how to join the Friends!

RAR (Radical Adventure Riders) New Haven - Bike and group info on RAR rides taking place this year

Yale Peabody Museum - Hands on nature-based science activities, led by teen employees

Connecticut Roller Derby - Community roller skating activity

Gather New Haven - Farm-to-table food preservation and cooking demos (i.e pickling, and fermenting) and GNH merch available to purchase

Divine Zine - Spring and renewal-themed zine-making activity with art prints available to purchase

Pardee Rose Garden & Greenhouse - Seedling flowers transplant program for children and annuals, house plants, hanging baskets and perennials available to purchase

City of New Haven Youth & Recreation Department (YARD) - Reptile Petting Zoo & Adult Volleyball from 12-4PM,and Yoga at 2PM

Circle K Petting Zoo - Goat & farm animal petting zoo from 12-3PM

Spotlight: Crypt Tours at Center Church

Meet at Center Church for Crypt Tours, taking place at 12PM, 1PM & 2PM

The Center Church Crypt marks the last remaining evidence of the early settlers of the New Haven Colony who were buried on the Green.

In 1812-1814, a fourth meeting house, the current Center Church meeting house, was built over a small portion of the town’s burial ground. 137 grave stones of New Haven’s founders and earliest citizens dating from 1687, including: Benedict Arnold’s first wife, President Rutherford Hayes’ family, and the Reverend James Pierpont (a founder of Yale College).

Learn more about the "stones & stories" of the Crypt: www.ctcryptkeeper.wordpress.com

Spotlight: Clean the Green with the F.O.T.N.H.G.

Meet at 9AM on May 11th at Trinity Church on the corner of Temple & Chapel

Friends of the Green New Haven is a group of dedicated volunteers from Trinity & the community that seeks to enhance and care for the beloved public space that is the New Haven Green. Traditionally, we gather on the last Saturday of each month April through October to clean the Green. They will be holding a special Clean the Green session on May 11th for Wake Up the Green, but other upcoming dates include: May 25, June 29, July 27, August 31 & more!

Interested in joining the volunteer team? Visit: www.trinitynewhaven.org/friends-of-the-green

Historic Activities

The celebration and reenactment of Powder House Day in New Haven:

On April 22, 1775, Benedict Arnold demanded the key to New Haven’s powder house to lead his battalion of over 60 men north to aid in the fight against the British in Boston. Arnold and his men called upon the city leaders, who were in session debating their response to the conflict, to open the powder house for supplies. They refused, with General Wooster stating the need to wait for regular orders. Arnold demanded—and eventually received—the key to the town’s powder house by threatening to order his men to break open the building and help themselves if they didn’t have the key in five minutes. Once armed, the company began a three-day march to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to join the fight against the British.

To reenact this event, representatives of the Second Company Governor’s Foot Guard walk across the Green, meet the Mayor, and retrieve the Powder House Key. The representatives return to the Green and rejoin the regiment marching to a designated portion of the Green for a battalion review. Muskets will be fired. This takes place at 10:30 AM.

The Second Company, Governor’s Foot Guard was chartered in 1775 and Powder House Day has been a yearly tradition in the Elm City since 1904.

Saturday, May 11th | 10:30AM - 4PM Lower New Haven Green, Downtown New Haven, CT

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