Charlene Arsenault of Auburn and her friend Jeannie Hebert of Shrewsbury were facing a real challenge — finding a permanent place to hold a festival for an estimated 2,000 attendees with their canine companions and feline friends.
Arsenault and Hebert are the co-founders of the Pet Rock Festival, an animal welfare festival that features live music, local non-profits and various performances and activities for people and their pets. The proceeds from the festival go to animal-related charities supporting animal-welfare-related causes, such as shelters and farm animal sanctuaries, according to the two organizers.
The festival has been an annual event since 1999, with an average attendance of 1500-2000 people yearly and 100-150 non-profits attending, the two told MassLive. Yet, because of its popularity, they said a consistent problem arose — the festival would outgrow the venues for the event, resulting in insufficient parking and space to accommodate everyone.
It was particularly challenging last year at the Scandinavian Athletic Club Park (SAC) Park in Shrewsbury, according to Hebert. The parking lot was filled up at 1 p.m., resulting in the fields being used for additional parking. Hebert said attendees became stressed and worse still, the festival was rained out two hours later.
“It could have definitely been our last time,” Hebert said about the festival. “It’s not the first year we’ve had a challenge.”
This year, however, Arsenault and Hebert think they have found the perfect “forever home” for their festival at the Lancaster fairgrounds.
Located off Route 117, the fairgrounds will be the venue of this year’s Pet Rock Festival on Oct. 6 from noon to 5 p.m. The festival will feature several attractions, such as the the Pups In The Air disc dog team, animal mascots, doggie massages, a doggie water park, animal-friendly vendors, animal welfare organizations, hundreds of non-profit groups dedicated to animal welfare causes and several musical acts, according to a press release.
Arsenault and Hebert told MassLive the fairgrounds are an “incredible” place to hold Pet Rock Festival, citing its numerous parking spaces, three pavilions, two barns and pond on site. The two note that they personally will have to travel further to the festival this year. Nevertheless, Arsenault and Hebert say they are looking forward to holding the event at the fairgrounds.
“It’s made for a festival,” Arsenault said. “It’s ready to go.”
A home for a homeless festival
Even though Arsenault and Hebert’s festival is dedicated to helping animals find their forever homes, Pet Rock Festival has spent years trying to find its own permanent home.
When the event was first held in 1999, the venue was the Hebert Candy Mansion in Shrewsbury, which Hebert’s family owned. The event was popular and stayed at that location for about five years, until the town asked the organizers to leave due to it causing traffic problems on Route 20, according to Arsenault and Hebert.
“We outgrew it, quite frankly,” Arsenault said. “It was blocking Route 20 and the parking got out of control. It grew really big, which is a good problem to have but they just didn’t want us to have it anymore.”
After leaving the mansion, Arsenault and Hebert said the festival found a new home at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, where it stayed for more than 10 years. Once again, however, the festival became too big for the college and the two had to find a new home.
“Basically the same thing happened at Quinsigamond that happened at the Candy Mansion,” Arsenault said. “We just kind of outgrew it. The staff there, it became too big for them to handle it.”
Arsenault said the festival was held in different locations for a while, such as the Sturbridge Host Hotel in 2014 and Becker College in Leicester in 2015 and 2016. From 2017 until 2021 the festival was held at the Wyman Gordon plant site in Grafton, with the exception of 2020, when a virtual festival was held due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Arsenault said.
She added that the organizers wanted to hold the 2023 festival again at the Wyman Gordon site but the property was sold.
“We tried to rent it,” Arsenault said of the Wyman Gordon property. “It was a complete bummer to everyone involved. It was a wonderful spot to have it.”
Because the lot was sold, the event had no venue in 2022, resulting in a virtual Pet Rock Festival.
In 2023, the 25th Pet Rock Festival was held at SAC Park in Shrewsbury. Hebert said she thought there would be enough parking to accommodate everyone on site but by 1 p.m., the lots were filled.
“We were trying to park people on fields we didn’t think we had to use,” she said. “It became very chaotic.”
This time, the two hope the fairground size and parking spaces can accommodate the many attendees and that this will be their home for the foreseeable future.
“We really, really hope this is the last time we move but we’ve been through it a couple of times since,” said Arsenault.
In a press release, Rose Darden, event coordinator for the Lancaster Fairgrounds, wrote she looks forward to hosting the Pet Rock Festival.
“The fairgrounds in October are absolutely beautiful and will be the perfect backdrop for this very worthwhile organization and their outstanding event,” wrote Darden. “We look forward to a successful partnership for many years.”
Countering animal cruelty
Pet Rock Festival was conceived as a response to a show Arsenault watched that presented acts of cruelty against animals.
Arsenault said she saw an A&E documentary in 1999 about two boys from Kansas torturing and killing a dog. After viewing it, she said she was shocked someone would do such a thing.
“I had to go to therapy, thats how bad it was,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe this cruelty existed in the world.”
She spoke with her brother about what she saw and her feelings, and he recommended that she take action and do something that countered the cruelty. Arsenault would then meet with a folk musician from the Worcester area and discuss the idea of holding a music festival promoting animal welfare. Yet, the visions of what the festival should look like differed between the two individuals.
“She wasn’t happy with the direction that I wanted to take it,” Arsenault said. “She primarily wanted it to be a folk festival and I thought it should be a grander thing with shelters and vendors.”
Arsenault would soon cross paths with Hebert and Leigh Grady, the executive director of the Sterling Animal Shelter. The three began working together together to launch the Pet Rock Festival as Hebert’s family, who owned the Hebert Candy Mansion in Shrewsbury, was looking for an event to hold at their venue, according to Arsenault. The first Pet Rock Festival would then be held at the mansion that same year, starting its 25-year run.
“Very very quickly, Jeannie became involved doing the festival with me and Leigh,” Arsenault said. “The festival came from this cruelty story and then these people that I knew and met and that’s how it became this big thing it is today.”
Despite the search for a permanent home, Pet Rock Festival keeps moving forward, with Arsenault and Hebert taking time to support charities, non-profits and organizations that support the well-being of animals and pets. Hebert said the festival is about charity and that those who run it don’t make profit from it.
“None of us make any money, it’s a negative cash fall for me,” Hebert said, laughing. “It’s a true charity. All of us are volunteers. We have great sponsors. We have people who believe in our mission.”
Tickets for Pet Rock Festival are $15 for adults and $5 for children ages 12 and under. The festival will be held at the Lancaster Fairgrounds at 318 Seven Bridge Road in Lancaster.
