The 84th Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival: April 25 - May 1, 2011
Apple Blossom is an event that will have been around for 84 years next year. It is usually put on the first weekend in May, around the same time the Apple trees blossom in the orchard fields. When the timing is right, it's just so beautiful to see. There is a huge weekend event consisting of amusement rides, Clyde Beaty-Cole Bros. Circus, a Fireman's Parade, a Grand Feature Parade, a Concert Band competition, a Jazz Band competition, a Drill Team competition and a Weekend in the Park with all kinds of arts and crafts. If you would like to find out more information on the festival, please visit their web site at: Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival. Please go to the Events page for a complete listing of events.
There
use to be a field band competition, but due to the lack of funds and larger
commercialized band competitions, the interest isn't there anymore for field
competition. This use to be one of the biggest events during the 4-day
weekend. Bands would have to compete in all events for the Grand Champion:
Jazz, Concert, Parade, and Field. It is a real shame that the Field
competition has been eliminated. It was very entertaining, and gets people
excited for the coming summer of Drum Corps.
The
largest display of fire fighting equipment in the nation can be seen during
the Firefighters' parade. Over 300 units of equipment, celebrities,
bands, beauty queens and special units twist their way along downtown
Winchester. The 2010 Firefighters' Parade is
coordinated by members of the Winchester and Frederick County Firefighters
for the 78th year.
Floats, bands, celebrities, classic cars, beauty queens, special units, and animals all make up the Grand Feature Parade winding through historic Winchester. The parade is coordinated by the members of the Winchester Host Lions Club for the 63rd year.
The Weekend in the Park has Over 250 juried crafts, people, and live entertainment that will be on hand displaying their talents. Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus cast of over 100 performers and animals to delight and entertain through seven stupendous star-studded performances. Fun for the entire family, the Apple Blossom Carnival Rides, produced by Powers Great American Midway and presented by Food Lion and Nabisco, offer a variety of activities. This event features over 30 carnival rides along with food and games.
With the Old Town Midway, you can shoot some hoops, throw some darts, eat some food or just go for a stroll on the Loudoun Street Mall. The Midway offers these things and much more. Featuring vendors from over twenty states, the Midway is full of carnival games, novelty items and food. Cotton candy, caramel apples and corn dogs are just a few of the favorites along with a variety of international foods.
Now onto the parades. Keep in mind that I can go on, about the Cars, Fire Trucks, and Floats in the parade. But I would bore you. So I just took out all of that stuff and put in the good info, the Bands! That is the main reason I go. Bands travel from great distances to compete. Some just stop on their way to another more commercialized competition.
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* For the year 2011 and that year only, the Festival's kick-off event, the Bloomin' Wine Festival, which would ordinarily have been held on Easter Weekend, will be moved back one week to Friday, April 15th, and Saturday, April 16th. Festival Officials felt that the event would have been too much of an impediment to the many, large Old Town churchs and their celebration of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. The event will be held on Palm Sunday Weekend; but, it will end Saturday evening before Palm Sunday morning; and, religious leaders felt that any production elements still present on Sunday morning [empty stages, empty tents] would not be an impediment to the Procession of the Palms to Court Square.
* There will be no Festival events over Easter Weekend, April 22nd, 23rd and 24th.
* The Festival will resume its regular schedule with the Pumps and Pearls Ladies Party at the George Washington Hotel on the day after Easter Sunday: Monday, April 25th.
* The Festival will then run on to its conclusion with the Bluegrass Festival and the Sunday activities at Weekend-in-the-Park on Sunday, May 1st, thus avoiding conflicts with the Mothers' Day Celebration and the Shenandoah University Graduation the following weekend.
* IT SHOULD BE NOTED that the Grand Feature Parade will be on Saturday, April 30th, this year, not the first Saturday in May as it usually is.
The Festival is held in
Winchester/Frederick County Virginia, in the beautiful and historic Northern
Shenandoah Valley, just 75 miles west of Washington, D.C. A small city with
a rural atmosphere, Winchester is within easy driving time from Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh, PA, Baltimore, MD and Richmond, VA. Crowds in excess of
300,000 attend the Festival each year. To find out about the History of
the Apple Blossom Festival, feel free to go
here
to learn about it's beginning.