The 32nd annual Barn Raisers Ball at the “new” Ag Hall on Saturday featured a potluck, live music by Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish, cows led through the hall by Island kids, and even a marriage proposal on the dance floor.
The annual event commemorates when, in 1994, more than 300 Islanders gathered to help construct the building that is now home to the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society. After the hard work that took just three days, the Island danced on what was then a dirt floor to music by Hoy’s band.
“It’s such an awesome community event,” Lauryn Lynch, president of the Ag Society, said. “There were babies there, and there were elderly, and it really spans all the generations.”
The barn is always full of familiar faces, Lynch said she is always excited to know there are first-time attendees. “I love hearing about people coming from all parts of the Island because I think it’s one of those things if you live up-Island, and you see that sign, you know, but if it’s not something you’re driving by every day, you might not know about it.”
Although the ball is open to the public and free with a suggested donation of $10, the event raised the Ag Society more than $5,000 this year, Lynch said.
“It is a free event, but it’s really helpful, especially as our building is aging, and we definitely do have costs,” Lynch said. “We really appreciate the suggested donations. We feel the love that way.”
Lynch said there were a lot of volunteers behind the scenes who helped put out the desserts, stack tables, wash dishes, and with parking. “It’s one of those things that makes the Vineyard feel really, really special,” Lynch said.
The event typically spills outside, where there are lights strung among the trees and fire pits to gather around, but this year, the crowded dance floor was made even more special when Mason Fisher dropped to one knee to propose to his now-fiancée, Georgia Halliday. Hoy reached his microphone out from the stage towards Fisher, who asked “Will you marry me?” as the crowd cheered. The couple met exactly one year earlier inside that very barn.
“I bullied him into dancing with me there last year,” Halliday told The Times Monday. “My three favorite things are cake, dancing, and community, and the Barn Raisers Ball has all three.”
Fisher grew up on the Island, and his father, Arnie Fisher Jr. was one of the original volunteers who traveled to New Hampshire to retrieve the barn, bring it back to the Vineyard, and assemble it at its current home in West Tisbury. Fisher Jr. was also the president of the Ag Society in 1995 when they moved into the new structure.
“I can’t say whether or not we had a proposal before last night, but that was extremely exciting,” Lynch said.
“[Arnie Fisher Jr.] was definitely part of the process, which is really an amazing community feat, and it just makes it a real wonderful celebration in that beautiful barn of all the people that came together to put it together,” Lynch said. “The amount of work that the board went through to put it together, but then the help of the community just sort of sealed the deal that people feel very strongly, and it’s personal.”
Now, more than 30 years after the barn was raised, Lynch said it is up to the current board and staff to keep the tradition going and care for the building, which needs a new roof.
The barn is often described as “the Islander’s backyard,” a sentiment Lynch shares.
“The kids all run around like it is their backyard, and parents are comfortable enough with that, which is amazing. It really kind of symbolizes real freedom, the freedom of childhood out here,” Lynch said.
