The Vermont Quilt Festival is New England’s largest and oldest annual quilt event. The Festival is a nonprofit organization operated by a small part-time staff and a working Board of Directors assisted by hundreds of volunteers. Celebrating its Ruby Jubilee 40th anniversary, it was founded in 1977 as a one-day show of old and new quilts as part of Northfield's annual Labor Day celebration. Now a four-day event, it is presented at the Champlain Valley Exposition. From its inception, the Festival has displayed quilts on loan from private owners and from the collections of historical societies and museums. The Festival's goals are to bring the best quilts and quiltmakers in the world to New England and to preserve a record of the region's artistic and cultural heritage. Since 1980, the Festival has received national and international coverage in publications including Yankee, Americana, Discovery, Vista, Quilters Newsletter Magazine, American Quilter, QuiltMania (France), Vermont Life, New York Times, Boston Globe, USA Today. Honors American Bus Association Top 100 event: 2012 and many previous years, 2015 nominee Vermont Chamber of Commerce Top Ten Summer Event: several previous years Vermont Chamber of Commerce Top Ten Time-Honored Top Ten Event