Richmond's Carytown & Museum District news events in Richmond Virginia

Awesomer than The Fan.

July 30, 2008

Will you be attending the Watermelon Festival?

Posted by Sam @ 3:49 pm |

20 Comments.

Nothing I like better than some melon with my heat stroke but we will be out of town, not by design but by Providence, love the festivities but total strangers leaving watermelon bowls and water bottles on my front steps, seriously pisses me off.

Hope you all go and have a blast though!

Fiona @ July 30th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Seriously. Me thinks the Watermelon Festival should be buried. Let’s hear it for a Pumpkin Festival in October!!! WOOHOO!

Chloe @ July 30th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Carytown needs to rethink the watermelon festival, it’s gotten too big and too much, too many outside vendors, too many dogs strollers and people.

Nice to simply have bands playing, and the actual Carytown shops displaying their wares on the sidewalk.

schlep @ July 31st, 2008 at 11:30 am
Let’s hope it isn’t going to be fifteen hundred degrees like last year’s. I almost melted my face off — in a non-guitar related way.

Ross @ August 1st, 2008 at 8:42 am
It’s a hellish experience.

The street is too narrow for things like
this and the New Year’s Eve event.

Wallace @ August 1st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
It’s always on the hottest day of the year, but I love the dollar bowls of watermelon. Luckily, when you live close enough to stroll over, you can enjoy it for a few brief moments and then bail for the AC when you realize that you can literally see the heat waves.

Holly @ August 1st, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I second the FALL festival instead - pumpkins would be perfect! Virginia is beautiful in the fall and miserable in the late summer, particularly on top of the blacktop. why not accentuate the positive?

The watermelon fest is well intentioned but always literally MISERABLY hot. if they insist on making it a summer festival, maybe they could make it an evening festival? …a 4-10 fest might solve the parking issues and give some relief from the mid-day sun?

but I’d still vote for nixing the summer melons and opting for squashfest.

Annie @ August 4th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Amen to the Great Pumpkin Fest !!!

hp @ August 5th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I’d love a fall festival too, but I don’t think they need the business then. Didn’t the Watermelon Fest start out as a way to get people to Carytown on the deadest day of the year for the Carytown merchants? I can remember going down there for the first one and feeling tricked because all that was going on was that merchants had put all their sale junk out on tables outside- and there was watermelon.

lynnie @ August 6th, 2008 at 9:05 am
FALL FESTIVAL. I told myself “Never again” last year at the Watermelon Festival.

Susan @ August 6th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Don’t be too quick to judge… (granted, it’s been going on for 25 years but…) It’s being organized by a professional event company this year for the first time (in conjunction with the Carytown Merchants Association). Vendors were more carefully screened and it’s way more organized.

Plus, it’s only supposed to be in the 80s this year. Yeehaaa.

Carter @ August 6th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
75 degrees when it starts? 85 by mid afternoon and low humidity? This is going to be the best ever this year.

chris @ August 7th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
The festival does keep improving each year I have been. Good that my only real complaint is the oppressive heat and humidity that usually accompanies the festival but GREAT that it looks like it will be giving melon lovers a break this year for a change. Am so sad I will be missing the various street food and the crazy cheap sale at Plan 9. Not sure why crispy spring rolls and somosas taste better from a little cart but they certainly do.

Fiona @ August 8th, 2008 at 9:43 am
This will be my first. I am looking forward to the event and people watching.

Jimmy Ray @ August 9th, 2008 at 8:32 am
didn’t make it back in time to attend the festivities but Sunday when we got back in town went to the Mexican place for dinner… cleanup had just begun and there was trash ankle deep in places…that is gone now but there is a disturbing amount of flotsam and jetsam about still as of Monday noon. Not sure if it was the City or the event company that was supposed to handle the cleanup but whoever it was didn’t do a very good job by the looks of things…

though I did miss most of the festivities there was proof that at least one attendee had a spectacular time…got to see a guy in a hollowed out watermelon “helmet” walk across the Boulevard at about 5:30 or 6 PM…it was upended over his head with eye holes and a mouth opening…with the pink polo shirt it was quite a sight…glad he made it safely across, though he seemed to have a hard time of it…either he had one too many adult beverages for the day OR he should have cut his eye holes a little larger

Fiona @ August 11th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
to clarify…the trash was in the street and on sidewalk…not Viva Mexico, which was quite tidy as always

Fiona @ August 11th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
i just moved to this area and it was the best idea ever. I do want to know about maybe starting a community garden. Yeh?

lp @ August 12th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
RE community garden…the triangle of land on Grayland where the street becomes one sided (at McCloy) is RMA easement…might be a good spot for cheap or even free since it costs them to mow it now (when they bother)..also, by Grayland Tot Lot between house and fence on East side, that “empty lot” is part of the park property even though it is outside the fence. would look better as a garden than a random parking area (of offense to nearby neighbors that might be using it for that since parking on that part of Idlewood is scary)

Fiona @ August 14th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
LOVE the community garden idea. When can we start?

chris @ August 20th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I went and it was fun but way too crowded. Maybe the festival should be stretched to two days (like the Irish festival) to mitigate the crowding. I may or may not attend next year because it was simply too crowded and too hot.

beth @ August 21st, 2008 at 2:31 pm