Last Updated on March 18, 2025
Hancock Shaker Village opens for the 2025 season on April 12 with the Baby Animals Festival, an annual signal of spring for many Berkshire residents. A family favorite for more than 20 years, visitors are invited to experience the ritual of renewal by welcoming this year’s newest arrivals to the oldest working farm in Berkshire County at Hancock Shaker Village. The festival offers the unique opportunity for visitors to spend time with the lambs, piglets, calves, chicks, and kids (goats, that is!) up close in the Round Stone Barn amidst a wide variety of events and activities throughout the Village occurring in conjunction with the Festival.
Baby Animals Festival returns for its 23rd season, opening Saturday April 12th (through May 4 th). Open daily from 11am to 4pm, enjoy daily talks from our farm team and explore the Village. Our popular Behind-the-Scenes tour returns this year, which runs daily throughout the Festival beginning at 10AM. These tours provide a unique hands-on experience with the animals guided by our farm leadership team, complete with a wagon hayride around the Village (advance reservations with special tickets are required; book online soon as they sell out quickly).
Throughout the Festival there will be several pop-up experiences including a visiting bakery, craft demonstrations, immersive art experiences, as well as the Woodlife Kitchen café serving a variety of delicious sandwiches, salads, snacks, and drinks.
May 3 & 4, the final weekend of the Baby Animals Festival, features champion sheep shearer Fred DePaul giving our merino sheep their spring haircuts. Don’t miss our merino sheep getting tidied up and learning more about what happens next with their wool.
Throughout the 2025 season, Hancock Shaker Village will offer a robust program of innovative events & workshops as well as seven new exhibits featuring photography of the Village, Shaker inspired fashion, textiles, objects, and music. The exhibit and special events calendar begins in conjunction with the Baby Animals Festival on April 12th, and extends throughout the year including Shaker-inspired culinary events, musical performances, craft experiences, and other unique offerings.
“We have such an incredibly diverse tapestry of landscape, buildings, collection of objects, history, craft, ideologies, and cultural heritage practices to celebrate here at the Village. We enjoy challenging ourselves to create new experiences that illustrate the Shaker legacy and its relevance to our modern lives – and we are excited to share that work with the community for the 2025 season,” Hancock Shaker Village Director and CEO Carrie Holland Holland said.
For a complete list of events, workshops, tours, and exhibits for the 2025 season please visit www.hancockshakervillage.org.
