Merchants Bank Presents Festival of Fools in Burlington, Vermont

BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug. 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Merchants Bank proudly presented the 9^th Annual Festival of Fools celebration in Burlington, VT., from July 29^th through July 31^st. Merchants Bank's President and CEO, Geoffrey Hesslink, along with Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger started off the weekend celebration on Friday, leading the parade down Church Street.

Burlington City Arts hosted the fun-filled weekend long event. BCA's mission is to make the arts accessible in Burlington and the Festival of Fools echoes that mission by offering many free performances in the downtown area over the weekend. The artists are astonishing international street performers who provided entertainment for all ages.

Doreen Kraft, BCA's Executive Director noted, "This year's Festival of Fools was as near to perfect as a Festival can get. Great weather, huge crowds, and 75 different world-class performers putting on amazing shows that totaled 28 hours of free entertainment over the three days.

"What made it really special was the generous support of Merchants Bank. The resources Merchants Bank gave to the Festival in time and people helped the Festival achieve the potential we knew it had for all these years. When Merchants Bank puts its support behind a community event, it creates a ripple out effect that draws in more support from across the community. We are forever grateful for the partnership and are already looking forward to next year!"

Merchants Bank had over fifty employees in attendance at the Festival of Fools celebration throughout the weekend.  The weekend concluded with Merchants Bank making a $5,000 donation to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf.

Anita Bourgeois, Senior Vice President at Merchants Bank stated "Merchants Bank and our employees were ecstatic to be the presenting sponsor of the Festival of Fools in Burlington. The arts are critical to our community and with over 50,000 individuals in attendance the Festival rallied our community together in fun and energetic way. We were overjoyed to complete our weekend by making a $5,000 donation to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf."

About Merchants Bank:

A Vermont-chartered commercial bank established in 1849, Merchants Bank is the largest Vermont-based bank. The bank's business, municipal, consumer, and investment customers enjoy personalized relationships, sophisticated online and mobile banking options, with 31 branches in Vermont and 1 location in Massachusetts, operating as NUVO, A division of Merchants Bank. American Banker ranks Merchants Bank a "Top 200" in America among 851 peers. For more information, go to www.mbvt.com. Where do you want to grow? (Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender, NASDAQ "MBVT")

Contact: Anita Bourgeois

Merchants Bank, 275 Kennedy Drive, S. Burlington, VT 05403

802-865-1641, abourgeois@mbvt.com

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SOURCE Merchants Bank