Celebrate Fairfax 2008

Celebrate Fairfax, Northern Virginia’s largest community-wide celebration, takes place this weekend, June 6-8, 2008, at the Fairfax County Government Center. Celebrate Fairfax features live concerts on seven stages, an interactive SciTech Center and Children’s Avenue, Laser Show, fireworks Friday and Saturday night and hundreds of exhibitors and crafters. This year’s headliners include OK GO, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Bowling for Soup and Emerson Drive. Plus, there’s lots of great food options (mmmm; funnel cake!).

This will be my seventh year involved with Celebrate Fairfax, and I enjoy the festival every year. Even without stopping at the carnival, grabbing food or listening to music, I can easily spend hours walking around the site visiting the different booths and exhibits, particularly the County Expo area where more than 40 county agencies have various interactive educational displays. (While I realize that this doesn’t sound exciting, it is definitely worth checking out.)

If you’re not sure whether or not to attend, here’s my sales pitch. Where else can you pay $10 (even less if you purchase tickets today - Thursday, June 5) to see multiple concerts? I rarely attend concerts anymore because of the outrageous price of tickets (see Diamond, Neil and Girls, Spice) and the Ticketmaster fees. Besides the headliners listed above, there are dozens of great local acts. On Tap Magazine has an excellent preview of all the bands performing this weekend.

For any other information about the festival, visit the Celebrate Fairfax website. I’ll be at the festival as a volunteer the entire weekend, so if you happen to see a guy wearing a nametag that says Sean, a Celebrate Fairfax shirt and possibly carrying a walkie-talkie, please say hi.

There is no truth to the rumor (that I am starting here) that Carmen Electra, pictured above with Joan Jett, will be in attendance on Saturday. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/WireImage.com.)