Welcome to Bethel, Danbury, Redding & Friends of Putnam Park 250th Commemoration Calendar !

We are pleased to announce that the Danbury Museum is joining forces with Bethel's America 250 committee, and the Friends of Putnam Park to form the BDR, better known as "Best Dang Revolution!"

Check this page often as we add more community partner events for our whole area!

Getting Ready for 250!

Exhibits, 2026 & Beyond

2026 Patriotic Quilt Raffle

2026 -- The Revolutionary War
2027 -- The Raid on Danbury / Rochambeau
2028 -- 250 Years of Service & Sacrifice

2026 Patriotic Quilt Raffle

We'll be having a wonderful quilt raffle--thanks to the Fabric Friends of the Danbury Museum of a red, white, and blue patriotic quilt! Tickets are on sale at the museum NOW!

Scouting Badges

2026 Patriotic Quilt Raffle

Scouting Badges

Looking to get your Scouting America 250 or Girl Scouts merit badge for the semiquincentennial? Book a free tour for your troop and learn about Danbury's role in the American Revolution!

Book Club

Celebrating American Song

Scouting Badges

Join us for 250th-related literary adventures reading books collectively documenting our indigenous, Black, and immigrant experience as Americans over the last 250 years.

Charles Ives 152!

Celebrating American Song

Charles Ives--Connecticut State Composer, Pulitzer Prize-winner, and son of Danbury--is recognized as the Father of Modern American Music. Celebrate American Music as we celebrate our country's 250th birthday.

Celebrating American Song

A red, white, and blue extravaganza celebrating the beautiful legacy of American song and showcasing our own Marian Anderson, the famous Black contralto and Civil Rights activist who broke the color barrier at the Metropolitan Opera.

Réveille 2027

Join us in April 2027 for two days of community song, dance, and celebration as we commemorate the spirit that has infused Danbury for the past 250 years.

Saturday, April 18, 1:00 p.m.

Folklorist Derek Piotr at the Danbury Museum!

Derek Piotr is a folklorist, researcher and performer whose work focuses primarily on the human voice. His work covers practices including fieldwork, vocal performance, preservation and autoethnography; and is primarily concerned with tenderness, fragility, beauty and brutality. He has collaborated with artists including Scott Solter, Nathan Salsburg and Thomas Brinkmann across various disciplines.

The Derek Piotr Fieldwork Archive (fieldwork-archive.com) was established by Derek Piotr in August 2022. The Archive contains over 1,500 audio recordings made from March 2020 onward, and preserves diverse representations of folklife; ballads, hymns, tales, poems, children’s songs, and interviews among them. The focus of this collection is on the "non-singer": someone with no background in musical performance who can nevertheless relate a song or folkloric memory.

In this lecture, Derek will walk you through the process of journeying everywhere from Iceland to Appalachia to record these songs from non-musicians, as well as the organization and development of the Archive as a web-based repository.

Upcoming Bethel/Danbury/Putnam Park Events

This calendar includes events being held at the Danbury Museum, the Danbury Library, and the Bethel Public Library. Please double check the location for any events you are planning to attend!