Union Square hosted its 19th annual What the Fluff? festival in honor of Marshmallow Fluff – invented in Somerville in 1917 by a man named Archibald Query – on Saturday, drawing a crowd of about 20,000 despite the rain.
“Unfortunately it rained for last year’s Fluff festival too. But in both cases it has not resulted in Somerville folks and others shying away from our events,” said Jessica Eshleman, executive director of Union Square Main Streets and one of the festival organizers. The weather actually fit the festival’s theme this year – “Somerville Over the Rainbow: No Place Like Fluff.”
Query had figured out how to create a marshmallow creme in his kitchen and was selling it door to door. Three years later, he sold the recipe for Fluff to Allen Durkee and Fred Mower, who also made it in their kitchens and sold it door to door. Over time, Fluff caught on, though, and Durkee-Mower continued to expand their operation to keep up with demand.
Similarly, when Union Square started its Fluff festival in 2005, it had only a couple of hundred attendees. In the years since, it has grown into an annual event that consistently sees large crowds and features 75 vendor booths and multiple stages for live performances.
“It’s exciting to see the community respond with so much joy over such a unique and special festival,” Eshleman said.
Over time the fluffernutter came into being – a peanut butter and Fluff sandwich – so of course the festival honors Fluff with special foods.
Lots to do … and eat
There are also craft and community vendors, live music, games and activities. One stage had local performers, including the Somerville High School Step Team; the other, dubbed the “shenanigans stage,” hosted participants in Fluff-based ventures such as as Fluff jousting, Fluff musical chairs and Fluff limbo. The festival had Fluff boardwalk-style games, an “innovation alley” presented by the Somernova business campus and lessons from Parkour Generations Boston. Community partners such as SomervilleCAN and the Union Square Neighborhood Council were on site, along with Union Square food vendors including Gracie’s Ice Cream, Union Square Pizzeria and Neighborhood Restaurant.
“It’s no secret that we’re doing this not only to enhance neighborhood vibrancy and celebrate the character of our square, but also to create economic opportunity for independently owned business,” Eshleman said, acknowledging many community compromises that allow Union Square Main Streets to produce the festival each year: businesses lending parking spaces for vendors and performers, police closing streets so people can walk around safely, restaurants adjusting their delivery and trash pickup schedules and the graciousness of residents who live near the festival area.
Some of the restaurants who were part of the festival used Fluff to create unique treats for the event.
“This festival is a tribute to Union Square innovation, so we ask businesses: How innovative can you be in your kitchen, in your brewery, in your shop?” Eshleman said.
These “flufftastic offerings and fluffalicious feasts” included creations such as Fluff chocolate chip cookie empanadas (Buenas), arepas with Fluff, Nutella, and strawberries (Carolicious) and Fluff paratha and Fluff drinks (Himalayan Kitchen).
Still available!
Since some of these Fluff foods are still available, I decided to try a couple.
At Union Square Donuts, I got the fluffernutter doughnut: a brioche pastry filled with Fluff, dipped in a peanut butter glaze, drizzled with more Fluff and topped with fluffernutter cookies. All those things sound good individually, so it was no surprise that together they were delicious. The doughnut itself was the shop’s classic brioche base – good for the fluffernutter without being anything particularly special. Likewise, I enjoyed the Fluff in the middle, but it seemed to have been thinned out; I would’ve preferred a thicker filling. The peanut butter glaze on the top, however, was perfect. The taste was pure peanut butter, just sweetened, which complemented the Fluff and the brioche and took the doughnut from fine to great. The topping with crumbs of fluffernutter cookies added a nice crunch. It’s available at all Union Square Doughnuts locations for the next couple of weeks.
After enjoying that peanut butter-y, marshmallow-y monstrosity, I walked directly across the street to Bloc to try its Fluff cupcake: a homemade treat with vanilla Fluff frosting. I was excited to try this after two recent cupcake experiences, one and one great. Unfortunately this landed on the mediocre side. The frosting tasted more like vanilla than marshmallow, and the cake was dense, almost verging on stale. Although an employee at Bloc said it will continue offering the drinks it created for the festival – a s’mores latte and a slide with Fluff, chocolate, banana, vanilla ice cream and crushed graham cracker – the cupcake I got on Monday was left over from the ones made for the festival, which may have been the issue. We’ve enjoyed Bloc and its sister stores Forge Baking Co. and Ice Cream Bar and Diesel Cafe in the past, so I’m apt to think the cupcake would’ve been better on Saturday.
Final days for Fluff exhibit
While I was in the neighborhood, I visited the Fluff micro-museum, created for the festival by Sarah Dudek of Indestructible Food. Located on the second floor of Bow Market, it tells the history of Fluff from Query to Durkee-Mower to the present day, covering everything from Fluff in space to a legislative push to make the fluffernutter the official sandwich of Massachusetts. There are interactive activities along the way, Fluff merchandise for sale, and even fan art submitted by Fluff lovers.
“All day, people were lined up outside, waiting to make sure they could get into the micro-museum,” Eshleman said. “To see it come to fruition through Sarah’s incredible talent was amazing, but it was even more rewarding to also see the community respond so well.”
The micro-museum is in place through Monday. Eshleman said she hopes it will come back for future festivals. Next year’s festival will be the 20th celebration, and although planning doesn’t begin until late winter, Eshleman said a team is already thinking about ways to make the festival extra special.
“Everybody is really excited and proud that we’re 20 years in the making,” she said.
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