This is Erin Flynn’s second time around as president of the Gaspee Days Committee, but she still gets a wonderful feeling when people tell her the arts and crafts festival is the beginning of summer for them. It’s a time for the whole family to come together, walk Narragansett Parkway, meet friends and look over and buy the wares of more than 150 vendors.

From early forecasts, however, it looked like the festival could be a washout. There have been some wet Memorial Day weekends, but the festival has never been canceled because of the weather. The only committee president to postpone the festival and cancel other Gaspee events including the parade was Gina Dooley. She didn’t have much choice. Covid shut down the state in 2020.

So a few showers on Saturday didn’t keep people away from the festival. The turnout was strong, and with improved weather on Sunday and Monday, it kept up.

While it’s the summer starting gun, the festival is also the kickoff to a series of events that culminate with the burning of the Gaspee (well, it’s a scaled-down steel outline of the British schooner that colonists torched on June 9, 1772) on Sunday, June 15 at 4 p.m. The best place to catch the action preceded by cannon fire from the Pawtuxet Rangers is Pawtuxet Park in Warwick.