This Weekend: Celebrate Fairfax

For those of you that live in the DC area (or elsewhere), it's time for my annual post about why you should attend Celebrate Fairfax . If you are unfamiliar with the festival, here are the basics: Celebrate Fairfax, Northern Virginia’s largest community-wide celebration, takes place this weekend, June 5-7, 2009, at the Fairfax County Government Center in Fairfax, Virginia. The festival features dozens of live concerts on five stages, an interactive SciTech Center and Children’s Avenue, fireworks Friday and Saturday night, hundreds of exhibitors and crafters and more. This year’s headliners (which I mentioned in March) include Blues Traveler, The Fixx, Phil Vassar and The Old Skool All-Stars (Tone Loc, Naughty by Nature and The Sugar Hill Gang). Plus, there’s lots of great food options (mmmm; funnel cake!).

I wrote about this when the discounted tickets went on sale, but I think it is worth repeating. If you are 11 or older, you will pay $12 at the gate for admission to the festival. How much do you spend on tickets alone when you go to a concert anywhere else (ex. 9:30 Club or The Birchmere)? Please also factor in the cost for all of the convenience and venue fees. The answer is more than $12. Plus, for $12, you get access to all of the other stages and activities. While, naturally, you will pay more if you want food, beer or pop (yes I wrote pop) or ride on the carnival rides, I've never been to a concert that distributes free alcohol or food (or carnival rides for that matter).

This will be my eighth year involved with the festival, and I enjoy it every year. I know that I'm going to hear some great music, eat free samples of (and later buy) kettle corn and see familiar faces. It is comforting that there are parts of the festival that I like that doesn't change much from year to year, yet, there are always new activities and exhibits.

For more information about the event, please 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 T-shirt and possibly carrying a walkie-talkie, please say hi.