Cynthia Bogart: The Brimfield Tweet-up

If you have been to the Brimfield Antique Show, you certainly don’t need to be reminded about how amazing it is. If you haven’t been, then listen up.

This is not just another antiques show. This is worth the trip, whether you are traveling fifteen miles or 3,000 miles to get there. It is held three times a year, along a one-mile stretch of Route 20 in Brimfield, Massachusetts. But be prepared: it takes a couple of days to go through the 6,000 booths set up in field after field, where you’ll find anything from vintage clothing to antique guns, duck decoys to china or old cast-iron tubs to quilts. The Brimfield Antique Show has been called the largest outdoor antiques market in the country.

The next Brimfield will be held from September 6–11. Nestled within those dates, on Thursday, September 8, and Friday, September 9, veteran antiques hunters will find a new kid on the block located at a tent in Hertan’s Field called The Brimfield Tweet-up.

A Tweet What?
A Tweet-up. It’s a party where folks who “tweet†together can get together in real life. Twitter, that online tool where people talk all day long, has become a part of thousands of people’s daily lives. In 140 characters or less, a Tweeter has conversations with “followers†in their “community,†where they discuss their interests and businesses and share information. In the case of The Brimfield Tweet-up, most of the Tweeters who will attend are in the interior design, antiques or arts fields. What’s a Tweet-up like? The best way to describe it is like walking into a party with dear old friends who have the exact same interests as you. The only difference is you’ve never met them in person–only by tweeting with them online.

Cynthia Bogart, designer Julie Browning and Gretchen Aubuchon

My co-host for the event, Gretchen Aubuchon of Gretchen Aubuchon Design, and I actually met on Twitter. While we both tweeted about shopping at Brimfield, other Tweeters asked to join us. One thing led to another and, last May, our first Brimfield Tweet-up hosted eighty-eight design Tweeters who were treated by sponsors Benjamin Moore, Aubuchon Hardware and Company C to their own tent and events. This September’s Brimfield promises to be even more exciting with more Tweeters in attendance.

For Tweeters
If you are a Tweeter in the interior design, architecture, arts or antiques community, you are more than welcome to sign up on the #Brimfield Web site and join us in the private VIP tent. There you will have one-on-one conversations with other people in the field, as well as with our sponsors and magazine editors. Go to the #Brimfield Web site for more information! In addition, you will enjoy another facet of the event that is open to non-Tweeters.

For Non-Tweeters
If you are coming to Brimfield on September 8–9 and you don’t tweet, come on over to the #Brimfield public tent at Hertan’s Field, which is being sponsored by Benjamin Moore, Aubuchon Hardware, GE Monogram and Pandora de Balthazar Fine European Linens. Live demonstrations will take place with lifestyle expert Kelley L. Moore from The Nate Berkus Show and The Today Show, and with Brian Kelsey from Martha Stewart Radio, who will be refurbishing Brimfield finds and putting together a special table setting. In addition, Benjamin Moore’s color and paint expert, Lu Samu, will be refinishing a few pieces with new and easy paint techniques. Media partners Traditional Home, Better Homes & Gardens and New England Home will have editors in attendance. Top executives from the event sponsors will also be on hand.

Lu Samu, color and paint expert for Benjamin Moore Paints

Kelley L. Moore and Brian Kelsey

The talk about #Brimfield on Twitter is ongoing. Follow along there or on Facebook at #Brimfield.  So whether you tweet, are on Facebook or do nothing at all, if you’re at Brimfield on September 8–9, be sure to stop by the #Brimfield tent at Hertan’s field. You are hereby invited and definitely most welcomed!

–Cynthia Bogart
Cynthia Bogart is the editor of The Daily Basics, an online site dedicated to home, life and YOU style. She is an eighteen-year veteran regional editor for Traditional Home and Better Homes & Gardens. Cynthia lives on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island with her husband, three children and two dogs.