May Festivals: Cheers to the strawberries

And then there were two.

May 27, 2016; 1:42 PM • by Rachel Marsh

Photo by: Sky Noir

Friday Cheers

Mind if your sweatpants/Netlix/popcorn Friday evening routine is interrupted by really amazing outdoor music for two straight months?

  • Every Friday through the end of June
  • Brown’s Island
  • $5-10

Strawberry Fields Festival

Pick them! Step on them! Put them on a shortcake! Make a jam! Smear them on your face like war paint! Throw them at your friends! These are all things you can do with strawberries at a strawberry festival. Oh, and eat them. Definitely do that.

  • Saturday, May 28th – Monday, May 30th • 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
  • Gallmeyer Farms, 3622 Darbytown Court
  • Free!

— ∮∮∮ —

Previously

Richmond Dance Festival

So many diverse dancers from all over the country, representing dances from all over the world. Lots of art, lots of culture, lots of dancing, and lots of wishing you had stuck with those ballet classes you took in preschool.

  • Friday, April 22nd – Saturday, May 7th • Friday & Saturday shows 8:00 PM
  • Dogtown Dance Theatre, 109 W. 15th Street
  • $15

RVA East End Festival

Music programs in schools are pretty great. Music in the park is pretty great. Music in the park benefitting music programs in schools…well, you know where I’m going with this.

Que Pasa?

Head downtown to see some much deserved color and culture infiltrate the Canal Walk. Pupusas, mariachis, and artisan crafts make up the most genuinely Latin festival you’ll experience all year in RVA.

  • Saturday, May 7th • 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
  • Along the Canal Walk in downtown Richmond
  • Free!

Strawberry Street Festival

I always thought Strawberry Street sounded like something from Candy Land, or out of a cartoon. It seems like a street that would be constantly filled with carnival rides and cotton candy and face painting and laughing children. Well for one day every year, my dreams come true thanks to Fox Elementary School and their annual fundraising festival. Games, raffles, rides, and yes, strawberries. Then when it’s over we can all go to the afterparty at the Gumdrop Forest.

  • Saturday, May 7th • 12:00 – 4:30 PM
  • William Fox Elementary School, 2300 Hanover Avenue
  • Free!

Acca Shriners Pork and Music Festival

The flyer for this event has a picture of a pig holding guitar, but don’t confuse this for the “Pork Playing Music” festival, as you might be very disappointed when all of the musical guests are humans and the pigs are crispy and barbecued and purely for consumption. However, if this doesn’t sound like something that would disappoint you, then it might be worth buying tickets.

  • Saturday, May 7th • 1:00 – 5:00 PM
  • Acca Shrine Center, 1712 Bellevue Avenue
  • $25 in advance, or $35 at the gate

Virginia Hops and Barley Festival

A slew of local beers for all you Powhatan folks, or all you folks trying to get out of the city, or all you folks that just like craft beer.

  • Saturday, May 7th • 1:00 – 7:00 PM
  • 288 and Huguenot Trail
  • $25

Science on Tap

A beer festival at the Science Museum itself! Complete with brewers and science nerds alike to answer all of your beer-related chemistry questions, like “How long does fermentation take?” “What’s the deal with yeast?” and “How do they get all of those bubbles in there?”

  • Saturday, May 7th • 2:00 – 6:00 PM
  • Science Museum of Virginia, 2500 W. Broad Street
  • $10

Lebanese Food Festival

Everyone says Thanksgiving is the one day a year you can eat all you want without feeling guilty. But I think that food festival season also counts. Basically what I’m saying is, fill up on tabouli and kebabs and this thing called zalabia. Then watch some football and take a nap. Here’s our inside info from last year’s fest.

  • Friday, May 13th – Sunday, May 15th • Friday and Saturday 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM, Sunday 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
  • Saint Anthony Maronite Church, 4611 Sadler Road
  • Free to attend!

May Faire

It’s a fair in May, that’s really all you need to know. No, OK just kidding, there’s a little more. Like face painting, and pony rides, and birdhouse building. And a maypole of course, because, well, it’s May.

  • Saturday, May 14th • 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
  • Richmond Waldorf School, 1000 Westover Hills Boulevard
  • Free!

Central VA Wine Festival

Unlimited samples of local wine. Unlimited tannins. Unlimited swirly things you do with your glass. Unlimited fun.

  • Saturday, May 14th • 12:00 – 6:00 PM
  • Innsbrook Pavilion, 4901 Lake Brook Drive
  • $17 in advance or $25 at the gate

Pickled and Fermented Festival

Pregnant people, rejoice–there’s an entire festival dedicated to pickles and to other pickled and fermented products. Wash it all down with some ice cream for the most satisfying afternoon you’ll have for nine months. Non-pregnant people, wash it down with some fermented hop water brewed just a few feet away.

  • Saturday, May 14th • 1:00 PM
  • Center of the Universe Brewing, 11293 Air Park Road
  • Free!

Dominion Riverrock

People kayaking, people running in mud, people doing crazy things with bikes, people slacklining, and people that aren’t people but are in fact dogs, diving into the water at astounding lengths.

Celebrate Jackson Ward

Hey, Jackson Ward is way more than just a pretty face and great restaurants. It has a history, you know. And stories. And feelings. This outdoor “Big Tent” festival features the Symphony as well as a jillion other local acts.

  • Friday, May 20th – Sunday, May 22nd • see site for times
  • Abner Clay Park, on the corner of Brook Road and W. Clay Street
  • Free!
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Rachel Marsh

Rachel Marsh wishes brunch was more than a weekly occurrence.

May 27, 2016 1:42 PM · in , , and more 1

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