The Big E for Producers
An event bigger than the mighty maple
Hosted in West Springfield, Massachusetts, the Big E is the largest event on the East Coast and the fourth largest fair in North America. VMSMA has had a booth at the Big E's Vermont Building since the 1950s. This 17-day fair is one of the association's biggest fundraisers and is an important way for us to connect directly with hundreds of thousands of regional consumers.
Get involved!
2026 Big E
Friday, September 18 - Sunday, October 4
Volunteer
We rely on a great group of volunteers to run our booth! During the 2025 Big E season, we were lucky to have 35 different volunteers working between 1 to 22 shifts each. Interested in volunteering with us? We'll have an online sign-up form soon with new volunteer opportunities this year to help us package candy at Maple City Candy before we head down to the booth.
Sell your syrup to us
VMSMA is seeking interested members who would like to sell their syrup to the Association for use in our 2026 Big E Booth in Springfield, Massachusetts. Specifics are shared below and we ask that interested VMSMA Members complete this online form by June 1, 2026.
After we review information from all interested Members, we will reach out about shipping us (or dropping off) samples of your syrup from each of the barrels you're interested in selling us. We’ll need these samples in hand by June 19, 2026.
VMSMA will pay $2.80 per pound for bulk syrup for the Big E. Barrels will need to be delivered to Gagne Maple/Maple City Candy, c/o Jason Gagne, 45 Sugar House Lane, Swanton before September 7th. Gagne Maple will be bottling our Big E syrup in VMSMA containers of various sizes to sell at the Big E under the VMSMA label. VMSMA's payment terms for bulk syrup are Net 30 by check or bank ACH after date of delivery and confirmation of receipt and weight by Gagne Maple.
Our full order of syrup is estimated to include 830 lbs of Golden, 3780 lbs of Amber, and 3635 lbs of Dark Robust. This usually means we purchase one 40 gal drum of Golden, 9 of Amber and 9 of Dark.
Fill out the online interest form
Questions? Please reach out to Allison Hope (802-222-6132) or Mike Christian (802-349-6795)
What to expect
"We were so busy we needed some emergency resupply runs of both cream and syrup!"
Last year over the 17 fair days, we sold 20,000+ maple cream cones, 2,500+ pounds of candy, 4,000+ donuts, 1,400+ syrup pints, 1,000+ quarts, 336 half-gallons, and 167 gallons, and by the last day almost everything had sold out.
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