SOMERVILLE — The good people of Massachusetts do not mess around when it comes to Marshmallow Fluff.
That’s why, every September, a section of Somerville is shut down to welcome the hordes of fluffer-nutcases who want to celebrate one of the state’s most beloved food inventions.
On Saturday, the 20th annual Fluff Festival descended on Somerville, bringing with it a unique brand of sweet, sticky insanity in the form of Fluff-based vendors, shops, games and music.
Heard of Burning Man? This was Burning Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
There were Fluff cocktails, Fluff-based soap, Fluff hot dogs, Fluff ice cream, a mini Fluff Museum, Fluff sculpture classes and even an oddly specific robot that helped you stack Fluff containers.
The 2025 Fluff Fest had an overwhelming turnout. Fittingly, moving through the crowd felt like moving through actual marshmallow creme — dense, slow and easy to get stuck in one spot.
It was a free festival on one of the nicest days of the year. It’s no surprise that a tidal wave of humanity rolled through. So, if you wanted a Fluff-based concoction, there was almost certainly a long line.
That is, unless you wanted a fluffernutter sandwich. At Fluff Fest, those come to you. That’s thanks to students from the Somerville High School music program who walked through the festival with big buckets of bagged fluffernutters for sale — sometimes with a tuba in tow.
Fluff Fest was set on a section of Somerville Avenue that was blocked off, starting at Union Square. Stalls lined both sides of the street, along with games and activities. Businesses that reside on that stretch of the road got in on the fun as well.
Pizza joint Hot Tomatoes sold a Fluff pizza. Irish Pub Sally O’Brien’s offered chicken tenders with a Fluff-honey mustard dipping sauce. Peruvian restaurant Macchu Picchu had Fluff empanadas.
The festival also spilled over into nearby Bow Market. It was there that you could find The Great Kerfluffle Beer from Remnant Brewing. Brave souls could also order wasabi ice cream topped with toasted Fluff from Nagomi Bento.
Some of the Fluff concoctions were delightful. The big standout was the Fluffy Seagull latte, a peanut butter and fluff coffee drink made famous by the Lighthouse Keeper’s Pantry on Cape Cod.
Other Fluff experiments were an outright disaster, like that wasabi ice cream with Fluff. It was like a Candy Land fever dream. You got a soft, sweet taste of Fluff. But then the ice cream came in with a chilly punch that also had a weird, almost spicy zing.
Other Fluff-inspired frivolities at the festival included:
Fluff bowling (where kids roll a bowling ball at 10 fluff container “pins”)
Fluff container ring toss
Fluff cones with ice cream
Fluff cake jars
Fluff macarons
Fluff affogato bar
Fluff flan
Fluff ice cream
Fluff samosas
Fluff churros
S’mores
Fluff cannoli
Fluff sculpture-making workshops
Fluff mini museum
Fluffy Elvis hot dog (hot dog with peanut butter, apricot preserves, plantain chips, pork rinds and fluff)
Fluffertini (Fluff-infused vodka, espresso, topped with mini marshmallows)
Fluff arepas
The bonkers nature of the festival extends to its full name, which is “What the Fluff? A Tribute to Union Square Innovation.”
That particular innovation came in 1917, when Archibald Query started making Fluff in his home kitchen in Somerville and selling it door-to-door. Query later dropped out of the Fluff business as a result of wartime sugar shortages and sold the recipe in 1920.
Over 100 years later, Marshmallow Fluff has become deeply tied to the cultural identity of Massachusetts. With countless kids across the state eating fluffernutter sandwiches growing up, it’s a major piece of nostalgia as well.
As this weekend’s festival shows, Fluff is one of those core Massachusetts touchstones that people simply love — like drinking a Dunkin’ iced coffee in February or choosing Teddie’s Peanut Butter over any other brand.