With Andover’s dawn-to-dusk July 4 celebration now concluded, local residents and area vacationers are eagerly awaiting the next town-wide event:  the annual Old Time Fair, sponsored by the Andover Historical Society.

To be held between 9 and 2 PM. on Sunday, August 4,  on the grounds of the Potter Place railroad station and historic neighborhood. The fair will offer a full complement of activities: up to two dozen vendors and others demonstrating their creative efforts, live music and other entertainment, fun and games for youngsters, a sale of antiques and collectibles, a flea market, and more. Admission to all activities is free.

More specifically,  events and offerings will include: 

** Music  featuring Chuck Will on piano, Lindsey Schust & The Ragged Mountain Band, and Roland Dupuis on fiddle.

** Free rides — you provide the muscle power — on an old railroad handcar 

** A visiting caboose (from the Roundhouse Workshop in Hopkinton) reimagined as a “tiny house” 

** Antiques, collectible items and flea-market sales

** The “Secret Garden”

** An exhibit featuring Andover’s seven covered bridges in the railroad station and Emons General Store 

** The gravesites of famed black entertainer Richard Potter and his wife Sally

** Fine art and ephemera for sale  in the Gordon-Lull House

** the sale of strawberry shortcake at the General Store

** crafters whose work may include blacksmithing, chair-caning, penny rugs, weaving, basketmaking, felting, woodcarving, pottery, whirligigs

To get to the fair, follow the signs on Main Street about a mile west of the Village of Andover.  The Society’s holdings are on Depot Street. Parking space is abundant.