Sponsored by the Otsego County Water Quality Coordinating Committee (WQCC), the Otsego Lake Festival is a day of educational outreach with a focus on water quality, as well as a celebration that recognizes Otsego Lake and its vital role to the region as the source of the Susquehanna River, according to its website. The Festival will feature non-profit groups in the region that support water quality initiatives. Exhibits will detail local efforts to improve and safeguard Otsego Lake and other water resources throughout Otsego County.

Otsego Lake Festival planner Susan O’Handley said she feels it is an important event because it gives people the opportunity to get to know more about water issues and the organizations involved with water quality. She also said it gives people a chance to learn how they can make a difference.

``I encourage people to come because water quality is such a critical subject,’’ O’Handley said.

�’If you have any interest in learning about water quality issues in Otsego County this is the place to be,’’ she added.

The festival will feature lake-related activities and entertainment, including live acoustical music, art, children�s activities, and food.

There are many new activities that will be featured this year. For example, participants, young and old, will get the opportunity to paint a fish and then press it onto a t-shirt that the participant must bring. Paper will be provided to those without a t-shirt.

The Capital Area Model Boat Association will be demonstrating radio control boats. Extra boats and a radio control tug will be on hand so spectators can try their hand at sailing.

Smith Ford of Cooperstown will be at the festival to showcase Ford Motor Company’s Hybrid Vehicles. The display will be set up explaining the hybrid technology along with the environmental benefits of choosing a ``greener’’ vehicle.

Also this year, the Wildlife Learning Company is trying something new by exhibiting its resident birds of prey. In the past two years it exhibited marine life.

At 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. tours of Otsego Lake will be provided by the staff of the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station.

Special musical guest Skip West will entertain festival goers with his �’American Legends’’ performance at 1 p.m. and again at 3 p.m. From the cypress swamps and gulf coast of Florida to the rolling farmland and mountains of upstate New York, West has spent the years teaching, writing, and performing his own original songs along with classic country, folk, pop, and swing.

Now he �’travels the land’’ in the tradition of singer/songwriters from Woody Guthrie to Bruce Springsteen, performing wherever audiences gather to hear music in the great American traditions. West sings and plays guitar, five string banjo and mountain dulcimer, and engages his audience with short stories about his music and life on the road. Singing along is encouraged and dancing is always permitted.

This year’s festivities will also feature a raffle for a chance to win a Sunday brunch for two people at The Otesaga Resort Hotel and two single tickets to a 2007 festival season production at Glimmerglass Opera valued at $160. A free ticket will be given to each family in exchange for demographic information and feedback. Extra chances can be purchased throughout the event. The drawing will be held at 5 p.m. to close the event.

The 2007 Otsego Lake Festival poster is now available. This year’s poster was designed by Scottie Baker and Peter Johngren and it highlights the importance of pristine water resources as critical habitat for myriad wildlife species. The poster will also be available at the festival, according to O’Handley. Posters from the past two years are also still available. To purchase Otsego Lake Festival posters, contact Natura Productions at 547-5356 or e-mail scottieb@naturaproductions.com.

Coordinators say although the festival focuses specifically on Otsego Lake, the water quality initiatives featured by exhibitors are relevant to all who live, work and enjoy recreational activities in the Otsego Lake watershed, which encompasses approximately 75 square miles and includes two counties, five towns, and the Village of Cooperstown.

�’The watershed is a very important resource for the region. Conservation efforts undertaken by a number of governmental agencies, nonprofits, and local municipalities have helped protect water resources in the watershed for wildlife habitat, recreational activities, and water for human use,’’ said Martha Frey, executive director of Otsego 2000 and Executive Committee member.

Fry said the star of the event is certainly Otsego Lake. However, she said people should not lose sight of the fact that the watershed extends to the towns of Warren and Stark in Herkimer County, as well as to the towns of Middlefield, Otsego, and Springfield.

Lake festival donors include Two Chestnut B&B, B. Sharp Studio, Colonial Insurance Agency, Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce, Cooperstown Cookie Company, Cooperstown Marine Sales & Lake Front Motel, Davidson’s Jewelry/Augur’s Corner Book Store, S. Tier French, Hubbell’s Real Estate, Richmond and Jeanne Hulse, Robert and Suzanne Kingsley in memory of Robert Kingsley, Marjorie M. Landers, Mary Margaret Kuhn, Paul and Mary Kuhn, Friends of Bill Magee, John Mitchell Real Estate, LLC., Otsego Golf Club, Otsego Lake Association, Otsego Lake Bayside Motor Inn, Otsego Land Trust, Friends of Senator Seward, Smith Cooperstown, Inc., William J. Rigby Company, William and George-Ann Ryland, and Wilber National Bank.

For more details about what to expect at the festival go to www.otsegolakefestival.com.