2015 Celebrate Fairfax Notes

After working or volunteering at Celebrate Fairfax for nearly the entire festival for more than a decade, it seems odd only being there for a small part of the event. I helped with setup on Friday and things seemed to go more smoothly this year than during any other set-up I remember. Here are some other thoughts of this year's festival.

I took my four year old (The Moose) to see the fireworks on Saturday night. I believe that this was the first time he has ever seen them live. There's nothing like seeing the amazement in my son's eyes as he watched the fireworks. Very cool moment as a parent.

I heard an unconfirmed rumor that this was the last year there will be fireworks at Celebrate Fairfax. Groundbreaking has already started on the new Residences at Government Center and by next year, there will likely be people living there. According to what I heard, the Fire Marshall won't allow fireworks to be set off so close to residential property.

Probably The Moose's favorite activity was the DockDogs Championship. Here's the description of DockDogs: The world’s premier canine aquatics competition, DockDogs, is a national dog jumping competition that will feature four-legged athletes from around the region. It was really cool. Here's a picture that I actually took myself. Maybe I could be a photographer!

Glory Days/Fanfare always has a booth at Celebrate Fairfax, and the staff from the restaurant group are incredibly nice and friendly. I really need to go there to eat more often.

Brad Matchett is a comedy hypnotist who performs regularly at Celebrate Fairfax. While I didn't see any of his hypnotist acts, I caught some of his comedy show at the Children's Avenue stage. He is really, really good and captures everyone's full attention which is incredible given the attention span of some kids (and adults) I know. This is his Facebook page.

The only significant story worth sharing from set-up involved a frog. Apparently, a frog got injured, possibly partially run over by a vehicle. Personally, I had no idea there were any frogs on the Government Center grounds. Anyway, someone setting up a booth noticed the frog (which I will not call Kermit) and moved him/her away from the cement and on to a grassy area. There was actually a veterinary practice there, but they completed set up and were not there when I tried to find them to help. I checked on the frog a few times, and he wasn't there the last time I looked. I guess (hope) that he/she was good enough to head out and eat some flies. Maybe this really wasn't worth sharing.

My one year old (Pedro Tulo) loves to move around, so while I think he enjoyed seeing Celebrate Fairfax from the stroller, his favorite part of the fair was the festival office. We let him out, and he loved being able to crawl everywhere. On his behalf, I apologize to the person who called asking about festival hours. Pedro Tulo said the event ended at 6:00 on Sunday when it really was 7:00. (He really didn't say this. Or answer the phone.)

That's a wrap on Celebrate Fairfax 2015. Save the date, June 10-12, 2016, for next year's festival.