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Posted June 8, 2001

Herndon Festival Redux

This past Monday morning, as we do every Monday morning, The Observer staff was having its weekly meeting. We don't waste much time in formal meetings, and most of our planning takes place between two or three people, usually in the hallway or during an impromptu gathering around someone's desk.

But we make an exception for Monday mornings. We're supposed to start at 8:30, but after filling coffee cups, waiting for late-comers, checking e-mail and just opening the office, the meeting generally begins around 8:45. It rarely lasts more than a half hour.

We actually had something to talk about this week: the Herndon Festival. We all felt it might have been one of our better Festivals. Maybe it was the Observer beach balls we gave away, or the tradition of letting booth visitors rummage through last year's photographs looking for family and friends, or maybe it was just the opportunity for us to talk to readers and advertisers and for readers and advertisers to meet The Observer staff.

Here are some random comments from that meeting concerning the Festival:

® It was the first time any of us could remember being cold during the Festival. Saturday was a race against rain, but Sunday was chilly and windy. We liked it that way, but some of us actually wished we had brought a sweatshirt.

® Art Anselene, Herndon's parks and recreation director, and I, holding court in the intersection of Station and Lynn streets, thought that the Sunday crowd may have been larger than the Saturday crowd, certainly an unusual happening for the Festival.

® More than 60 dogs (and their owners) turned out for the first "Doggie Walk," which everyone claimed was a great success. Although you can't bring your dog to the Festival, I could spot those who were at the dog walk: They all had tags on their shirts that said, "Dog Parks. Yes." One woman accused me of being a dog hater and a cat lover. Well, she's half right: I like cats.

® Arno Randall, one of the "grandfathers of the Festival," (OK, he says "father" of the Festival), got engaged just before the fireworks Saturday night. It was an appropriate place for the planning commission member and long-time Herndon civic leader to pop the question. And talk about "pop:" Art Anselene, who was in the know about the big event, popped a bottle of champagne for the two love birds. Congratulations, Arno!

® Despite the near rain-out Friday night, the Center Stage was set up toward the back of the podium to shelter the bands from the weather. It rained, the bands played, and a few of the Festival faithful showed up, drenched, to watch.

® Most of us who have been to a decade or more of Festivals always have something to say about the food. We all still miss the "fajita man," who for the last couple of years has not been around. Tops on our list for food vendors were "Taste of the World," "Tortilla Factory," the funnel cakes and pizza, and, of course, the beer, although most of wish we had another choice along with Bud. Not making the food grade were the fish sandwiches, which were more like a sardine on marshmallow bread.

® And most of us couldn't get out of the Festival without making a major investment in crafts, from bird feeders and signs, to pottery and jewelry. Isn't that an important part of the Festival?

® Mayor Tom Rust, who will be running for the Virginia House of Delegates in the new 86th District, was nowhere to be found; at least we couldn't find him. But then there was that big Republican shindig in Richmond where Mark L. Earley was picked as the GOP nominee for governor. Maybe the mayor stayed on in Richmond to figure out how to improve Earley's meager coffers of $100,000. Democrat challenger Mark R. Warner, after all, has $3 million in his kitty to fight the Republicans. That's a big difference.

® Finally, as we have been every year following the Festival, we were all amazed at how clean the downtown was early Monday morning only hours after the Festival closed. Except for a couple of carnival rides still waiting to move out, you could hardly tell some 80,000 people had invaded the area over the weekend. The Herndon Public Works Department, once again, cleaned up.

The consensus that came out of our Monday morning meeting was that it may have been one of the more pleasant Festivals in recent years. Congratulations to Art Anselene and his staff, the volunteers, the Chamber of Commerce, and all those who had such a great time while behaving themselves.

And that's Our Town this week.