Nearly 50 years after they first projected psychedelic slide shows onto nightclub walls in the Mad River Valley, Sparky and Peggy Potter are bringing Dream On Productions back to life.
On June 6, the Potters will host “Dream On Productions Is Back!” — a two-part multimedia event blending restored slide shows from the 1970s and 1980s with a newly created tribute to the Warren Fourth of July Parade, one of the region’s most enduring traditions.
The evening, to be held at the Big Picture Theater and Café in Waitsfield, will revive an analog art form that once became a local sensation at venues such as the Blue Tooth and the Common Man. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the first show beginning at 7 p.m.
STORYTELLING
For the Potters, the project is equal parts nostalgia, historic preservation and community storytelling.
“We had kind of an epiphany last Fourth of July,” Peggy Potter said in an interview. “At the end of the parade, everybody was gone, everything was cleaned up, and there were like 15 of us sitting on the bridge by the Pitcher Inn just reflecting on what had happened.”
Among those gathered were longtime valley residents, artists and musicians who have shaped the Mad River Valley’s culture for decades. Peggy Potter said the conversation drifted toward the idea of documenting the parade’s history and emotional resonance.
“We got talking, like, wouldn’t it be great to do a thing about the Fourth of July someday?” she said. “Someday came around really fast, because Sparky retired and had a lot of time on his hands.”
SECOND ACT
What followed became the second act of the June event: “50 Years of the Warren Fourth of July Parade,” a sweeping visual retrospective built from decades of photographs, music and contributed memories.
The parade, long known for its irreverent floats, political satire, homemade artistry and community spirit, has become one of the Mad River Valley’s defining annual rituals.
“The photos tell the story,” Sparky Potter said. “Every year for at least 40 years, some of the best photos of each year are from that day. Why is that? Because the photos tell the story. So if not now, then when?”
The Potters began collecting images not only from their own archives, but also from fellow photographers, Prickly Mountain artists, Mad River Glen participants and longtime parade regulars. They also worked with The Valley Reporter and the town of Warren to help assemble material for the show.
COUNTERCULTURAL HISTORY
The first half of the evening, titled “The Great Still Picture Show!,” reaches further back into The Valley’s countercultural history. The restored productions originated during the late 1970s, when Dream On Productions developed multimedia slide performances combining still photography, music and improvisational storytelling.
The original collective included Sparky and Peggy Potter, Charlie Brown and Irving “Rush” Rushworth, along with a rotating cast of local artists and performers.
“We were very active from about 1976 to 1986,” Sparky Potter said. “Early on our purpose was to entertain our friends as a nightclub act and there were no rules or guardrails for what we were up to.”
The shows emerged before music videos, smartphones and social media transformed visual culture. Audiences packed local bars to watch rapidly changing images synchronized to music through elaborate sound systems.
STILL LIFE PHOTOS
“The power of still life photos on a big screen with great music coming out of great sound systems was intoxicating and exciting,” Potter said. “It was a time before cell phones, social media and music videos — so we were a testing ground for all of that.”
He described the productions as intentionally loose, nonlinear and experimental, shaped by the freewheeling atmosphere of the era.
“You will see subject matters colliding without much logical progression, but people accepted that random stream of consciousness,” he said.
Many of the original productions focused on specific themes, including tall ships, Vermont jazz festivals, speed skiing and the America’s Cup. The June 6 event will feature newly digitized and enhanced versions of some of the group’s best-known work.
Peggy Potter said revisiting the material has also become a way to reconnect with the community and preserve a disappearing chapter of local culture.
PRICKLY WORLD
“Sparky and I started out in that Prickly world,” she said, referring to the Prickly Mountain collective in Warren. “That was our first house, and where we spent our first night together.”
The Potters view the revival not simply as entertainment, but as a form of heritage preservation documenting a uniquely creative period in Vermont history.
“So basically what we have assembled here is an act of historic preservation for a time gone by,” Sparky Potter said.
The evening will conclude with stories, conversation and what the Potters hope will feel less like a performance and more like a reunion.
