By Drake Lucas
Staff writer
April 29, 2008 06:00 am NORTH ANDOVER — It will be a sheepless spring in North Andover. The annual sheep shearing festival, a town tradition for 35 years, has been canceled. Joan Heafey, a member of the Festival Committee, said attendance has dropped the last two years since the festival moved behind the middle school because of construction work at the Town Common. The last two years also have been plagued with flooding and heavy rain for the festival, which normally takes place the third weekend in May. "We don't get the exposure down at the middle school that we did at the common," Heafey said. "We have every intention of doing it again next year when the common is finished." The festival is a celebration of North Andover's history as a hub for the woolen industry with woolen mills and woolen machinery mills dating back almost 200 years. The festival includes sheep shearing and sheep herding demonstrations, spinners showing how wool from the sheep was spun into yarn and craftspeople selling their work. A year without the festival does not just result in a lack of sheep — it also leads to a lack of money. The festival was the major fundraiser for the town's fireworks display for the Fourth of July. Residents will vote at the May 13 Town Meeting whether to give $9,500 out of the town's budget to pay for the fireworks. The fireworks had always been a part of the budget until 2004 when Town Meeting voted to cut the money from the budget. The town had no fireworks display that year. The next year, the fireworks were saved by private donations, including more than $5,000 from the Yameen family, which owns Butcher Boy on Osgood Street. The Festival Committee then started using the money from the sheep shearing festival, plus some private donations, to pay for the fireworks. A jar for donations also is set up in Town Hall. Heafey said the committee may expand its fundraising efforts to put more jars up in businesses, but for this year without the sheep shearing festival, the committee does not have the time to raise more than $9,000. "We are always looking for contributions so we don't have to go to the town for money," Heafey said. "This year, we had to put an article in Town Meeting warrant. Hopefully, it will get approved. We are banking on it." If the money for the fireworks is approved at Town Meeting, Heafey said fireworks, along with the picnic and Fourth of July parade of baby carriages and bicycles will take place July Fourth weekend. Construction at the Town Common is expected to be finished this summer. Heafey said she hopes it will be ready by next spring so the sheep shearing festival can return to the common.
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