Carytown Watermelon Festival

Staff Reports
Published: July 29, 2008

Where: Carytown

When: Sunday, August 10, 2008, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

On Sunday, one of the most established festivals of all returns. The Carytown Watermelon Festival turns 25 this year, a quarter-century of commerce, music and the fruit known to botanists as Citrullus lanatus.

From 10 a.m.-6 p.m., nearly the entire length of Carytown—from Nansemond Street to Colonial Avenue—will be crowded with hungry shoppers and sale-seeking diners.

The festival, which legendarily takes place on the hottest day of the year, began as a way to drum up business for the Carytown merchants during the slow month of August. The woman whose idea it was to hold a sidewalk sale decided to hand out slices of watermelon, and a Richmond tradition was born.

Most of the 300 Carytown stores and restaurants will be open for the event, with additional vendors on the street. This year, more of the vendors will be from Richmond and Virginia, said Mike Murphy of Three One One Productions.

A hundred musical acts will perform at eight locations, along with a few nonmusical surprises such as a kung fu demonstration and a watermelon fashion show.

All the usual Richmond-festival foodstuffs will be available—funnel cakes, lemonade, souvlaki, ice cream—along with plenty of watermelon available at five different booths. The watermelon still costs $1 a slice at booths manned by the Shriners, with proceeds going to Shriners Hospitals for Children.

This year, the organizers are hoping to avoid one problem that afflicted the festival last year.

“We’ve ordered more watermelon,“ Murphy said. “Our goal is to not run out of watermelon this year. We’ll go through over 2,000 watermelons on Sunday,“ Murphy said.

Call: (804) 422-CARY (2279)

• SLIDESHOW 2008 Watermelon Festival