2019 Celebrate Fairfax Recap

The 38th annual Celebrate Fairfax took place over the weekend and this was my 18th festival. Based on the time I’ve spent at the festival, I can now vote (which I’m actually going to do today). Here are my notes and thoughts about this year’s event:

* Let’s start with the headliners. Better Than Ezra sounded good in the 2 minutes I saw them perform during sound check. I saw Smash Mouth on Saturday night and was a little surprised by the size of the crowd. I probably shouldn’t have been though. It was a beautiful day, so why wouldn’t people come out to the festival and see the headliner, particularly one that had three monster hits in the late 1990s and early 2000s? Unlike Sugar Ray last year (where Mark McGrath continuously talked with the crowd), there was almost no banter with the audience for Smash Mouth and its lead singer Steve Harwell. They just played one song after another. Here’s my one complaint about their set. Go to around the 8:45 mark of these videos to see All-Star.





Now you can say that it was really cool to let the audience sing the song. Or you could say that if someone wanted to sing All Star, they could do that at home or at karaoke without having the actual band playing the music on the stage. At least sing a line or two to start the second verse, Steve!

* The days of me volunteering for the entire three days of the festival are over. With three kids and their activities, it’s just not possible. I still enjoy helping with set up, and there’s definitely a bit of a rush seeing everything that happens before the gates open. I highly recommend helping out with Celebrate Fairfax or another event like this if you can. There's definitely a camaraderie too with all of the volunteers. With that written, I seem to know fewer and fewer people each year. There are only a handful of people who still volunteer at the festival from when I started in 2002 and probably only a few more than that from even 7 or 8 years ago. I guess that’s natural. It truly is a young person’s thing to be able to volunteer throughout the weekend.

* I think part of the reason for the big crowd on Saturday was the call for rain on Sunday. Even though it rained Sunday morning and definitely scared people away, when I arrived on site with The Moose and Pedro Tulo in the afternoon, it was just cloudy with some sprinkles. Basically, we had the run of the place. We had front-row seats (under a tent!) to see the animals brought by Wildlife Ambassadors. We stood almost directly in front of the stage to see the final song by Herr Metal, and one of the guitar players threw Pedro Tulo a pick. (Amazingly, he hasn't lost this yet.)

We also had perfect views of the US Army Band Downrange which the boys loved watching while eating big ice cream cones. For possibly the first time ever, there was no line to spin the wheel for the Great American Restaurants booth. As a comparison, there were easily 25 people in this line at 11:30 on Friday morning before the “Sneak Peak” for county employees. The booth didn’t even open until noon!

Exhibitors were more than happy to interact with us and give us stuff. We probably received about 6 plastic cups from Glory Days and about the same number of DC United temporary tattoos. We won 6 tickets to see the George Mason men’s basketball team’s first home game in November. The kids barely had to wait to play Cox’s virtual reality baseball game, and we spent some time with on-air personalities from the local ABC affiliate (WJLA). Kidd O’Shea actually took pictures of us. Basically, if it’s not raining very much, definitely go to a festival!

*Comedy hypnotist Brad Matchett is amazing. I have no idea how he does it, but if you have a chance to see him, go (though I don't see any upcoming events currently listed on his Facebook page). You won’t be disappointed.

* I only got 4 Fairfax Water cups this year. If we still had all of the cups from them since 2002, we’d have well over 100 by now!

That's really all that I have for this year. I ate a gyro from Bethel Park's John the Greek since his gyros are great. I walked 24,618 steps on Friday with about 23,000 of those steps being at the festival site. And yes, I'll be back again next year.

Me and Mark McGrath

You didn't know Sugar Ray lead singer, 3-time Rock and Roll Jeopardy Champion winner, and Celebrity Big Brother contestant Mark McGrath and I are friends, did you? Well, I can prove it since he responded to my tweet after performing at Celebrate Fairfax earlier this month.

Thank you brother Sean! Really appreciate you waiting out the rain, and I’m humbled by your kind words! @CelebrateFFX #CelebrateFairfax https://t.co/HgCGk5T7AX

— Mark McGrath (@mark_mcgrath) June 10, 2018

I think it's fair to say that we're almost BFFs. Let's set the stage so to speak. The 2018 Celebrate Fairfax festival featured a twin bill of Gin Blossoms and Sugar Ray on Saturday night. Gin Blossoms performed first and played a mix of their classic songs and new ones from a just-released album. Singer Robin Wilson has such a cool voice. After playing for about an hour, Wilson said good night and he and the band left the stage. We thought they were just doing the bit where the band leaves before the encore since they hadn't performed their two biggest songs, Hey Jealousy and Follow You Down. About 30 seconds later, Wilson came back and basically said, no, we're really saying good bye since there are thunderstorms in the area. Stay safe!

We got clarification that there were thunderstorms and it poured not too long after the announcement. (In hindsight, there would have been time for Gin Blossoms to play their last two songs, but you don't mess with safety at an outdoor concert.) After a 2-hour delay and fireworks through heavy rain, Sugar Ray appeared at 10:00. You could tell that the band was appreciative of the folks who stayed, and the people who stayed were excited to see Sugar Ray. Mark (we're on a first-name basis) really knows how to work the crowd. He admits that the band has 3-4 hit songs and is there to play these hits. (His 2013 interview in Rolling Stone shows this attitude.)

Throw in a cover of Blister in the Sun and a few lines of Sublime and you got yourself a show. He also made fun of the Gin Blossoms for leaving the stage for the pending thunderstorm and wanting the lights turned down earlier in their show since it was hot on stage, and then stuck his tongue out at Robin Wilson who was hanging out just off stage. There's definitely comradery there, and Wilson even came on and played the tambourine for a song or two. (Yes, that's Wilson next to the drums.)

(Gin Blossoms also posted McGrath and company playing Every Rose Has Its Thorn during the rain delay. Probably NSFW for a bad word or two in there.)

Every 🌹 Has Its Thorn: RW w/ #SugarRay

A post shared by Gin Blossoms (@ginblossomsaz) on Jun 10, 2018 at 9:08am PDT

Oh, a personal highlight was McGrath emphatically stating that he is a LA Kings fan, just a few days after the Capitals winning the Stanley Cup. He got booed and gave props to the Caps, but I appreciate him not pandering to the crowd like Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Amazingly, despite seemingly everyone having their phones out during the show, I couldn't find any videos of the Sugar Ray show on YouTube. Fortunately, Jason captured a few seconds of Fly.

If you have a chance to see Sugar Ray, do it. You won't be disappointed.

2018 Celebrate Fairfax

It's early April, the cherry blossoms are about to bloom, and those of us in the Washington DC area should be enjoying spring. Instead, we're looking at the possibility of snow on Saturday. Still, spring really is coming and so is warm weather. Celebrate Fairfax feels the same way and has Super Early Bird tickets on sale now through April 10th. Before I get into ticket prices, you may wonder what Celebrate Fairfax is all about (though if you've read my blog over the years, you already know the answer).

The 37th annual Celebrate Fairfax! Festival is being held June 8-10, 2018 at the Fairfax County Government Center in Northern Virginia. Festival highlights include family programing, craft beer, Virginia wine, a silent disco, 40+ thrilling carnival rides, nightly fireworks, and the following headlining performances:

Friday, June 8th: Good Charlotte





In my opinion, Good Charlotte was the last group to become big courtesy of MTV and may be underappreciated because of this. Good Charlotte is from Waldorf, Maryland so this will be a bit of a homecoming for the Madden twins and company.

Saturday, June 9th: Gin Blossoms & Sugar Ray









This should be fun. Somehow, I don't think I've ever seen the Gin Blossoms perform. That will change this year. Sugar Ray played at Celebrate Fairfax many years ago and put on a fun show. I'll just type fun one last time here.

Sunday, June 10th: Cracker



I like this song. If you're coming to Celebrate Fairfax on Sunday, you'll get Cracker and Sunday Brew, a pop-up beer festival featuring local and regional breweries and two stages of non-stop entertainment.

Besides the headliners, there are nearly 130 performances, 40+ food vendors, hundreds of exhibitors, and so much more. Plus, PSISTORM CUP VI esports Arena is Celebrate Fairfax!’s newest addition to the festival. The esports Arena will provide the ultimate fan experience by featuring “Open Play” all weekend and a 2-day StarCraft II Tournament. There will also be tournaments for Madden, FIFA, Smash Brothers and more!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Super Early Bird tickets are on sale now for only $14 for a weekend pass or $8 for admission for one-day. I know I say this every year, but you're going to pay more than $8 just for ticket fees for many concerts. Plus, there's so much more than the headliners at Celebrate Fairfax.

More information about the festival is available at celebratefairfax.com. See you in June!