Patrick

Every town and city in the US seems to have some strange Festival every year. Where I live, every April we have the Azalea festival, a week long tribute to the Azalea*. We have an Azalea Queen (last year it was some babewatch babe), with an entourage (minor celebrities with the emphasis on minor) and during the festival there are a couple of concerts, last year it was Hootie and some country band (the year before it was Jessica Simpson and some country band) this year it is Carrie Underwood and Pattie Labelle.

There is also a parade with floats, Street Fair, Circus, house and garden tours, Princess Pagent, Horse show, art contest and (my fav) a Shag Competition!

I forgot an adundance of fireworks, but you guessed that one!

*Its a flower, just in case you didnt know

Ray

Nothing really unusual here
But the Rattlesnake Festival and the KKK Roast are a bit unusual....
The Seafest is just a seafood nosh up ..and guess what gives at the
Flapjack Festival... then there is Gasparilla ..something about a non-existant pirate that is celebrated ... and of course there is the
Chasco festival about a non-existant native American....
But hey!!! If it don't exist ..make it up ....

CaliforniaBride

Armed Forces Day parade. Simply a demonstration of the might and power of the American Armed Forces. F18's fly slow low up the main blvd that the ground shakes.

Jaxbar

As far as I can gather here they burn a Wicker Man

bubbadog

We have Fiesta in San Antonio. It started out 115 years ago as a tribute to the heroes of the Battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto. It's basically a 10 day street party downtown with lots of parades, etc. More info is available here

NC Penguin

These are apparently the nationally (and internationally) known festivals that take place in my city. I've only been to two on the list.

February:

Native American Powwow
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
Full day of traditional Native American dancing, singing, crafts, food, and socializing.


April:

Bennett Place Living History Civil War Surrender Reenactment
4409 Bennett Memorial Rd, Bennett Place State Historic Site
Reenactment of negotiations and surrender between Generals Sherman and Johnston that ended the Civil War. Occurs bi-annually in odd years.

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
309 W. Morgan St., Carolina Theatre of Durham
The only international festival of its kind celebrating strictly the power and artistry of documentary cinema. Formerly Doubletake Documentary Film Festival.

May:

Duke Children's Classic
3001 Cameron Blvd., Duke University Golf Club
Golf event to benefit children's health-care programs at Duke University Medical Center.

June:

American Dance Festival
715 Broad St, Various locations on Duke University West Campus
The largest and most influential modern dance festival in the world, featuring more than two dozen modern dance companies and hundreds of choreographers, writers, and students participating in classes, seminars, and performances.

July:

Festival for the Eno
15-501 N. Roxboro Rd., West Point on the Eno City Park
One of the region's premier Independence Day celebrations with exhibits, displays, arts, crafts, and live entertainment on the banks of the Eno River to benefit efforts to preserve this beautiful natural area.

August:

North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
300 W. Morgan St., Carolina Theatre of Durham, Inc.
The second-largest film festival in the Southeast and the largest cultural arts event serving the queer community in the Carolinas, with world-premiere screenings and more than 10,000 tickets sold each year.

September:

Bull Durham Blues Festival
500 West Corporation St., Historic Durham Bulls Athletic Park
A celebration in the birthplace of the Piedmont Blues, featuring national, regional, and local blues, from the mournful sounds of the Mississippi Delta to the fine finger-picking and ragtime exuberance of the Piedmont Blues.

North Carolina Gay Pride Parade
Duke East Campus and Ninth Street District
The largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgendered event in a five-state area, attracting over 8,500 festival participants.

October:

Durham Arts Council's CenterFest
Liggett & Myers Tobacco Complex, Main St. between N. Duke St. and Great Jones
One of North Carolina's oldest and one the Southeast's largest street-arts fairs. The streets of Downtown Durham come alive with arts, crafts, entertainment, food, and fun.

World Beer Festival
500 West Corporation St., Historic Durham Athletic Park
Featuring more than 300 beer vendors from all over the country as well as local restaurant vendors, family entertainment, and great music by local and regional artists.

December:

Light Up Durham
512 S. Mangum Street, Downtown Durham
Seasonal music, performers, tree lighting, food and fun.

Yorkieabroad

We've got Rodeo going on now (well, it is Texas, but I guess someones going to point out its from guatemala or somewhere) but I guess the "main" one out in the styx west of Houston is Katy Rice Festival - celebrating the crop that made the town. All the usual stuff - Rice queen, carnivals, dances, excuses to eat massive amounts, etc etc

Bob

We have a military parade, but then there is an engineers depot out of town...and there's a pumpkin festival for halloween, and there's a lobster festival that happens along the coast, big up in rockland though.

where the folks live, well next town over, they have a parade to celebrate the guy that invented ear muffs...oh the joy

oh, and near where they live, oldest annual summer country fair to still go on in the country.

Leslie

We have a German sausage festival.

and peaches..

We have some sort of festival of the peaches.


And an enormous bike race in the middle of the Texas summer. Lots of dead people.

User Name

I'm too busy to work out what's going on where I live and the close proximity of DC, and so many folks just passing through, makes attending local events seem strange ... but when I lived in Chicago I liked the Taste of Chicago and the annual festival in Anderson (near the Swedish American Museum Center); Anderson had a Swedish community, which I guess has largely dispersed - but one could get a strapping Viking breakfast in the diners along N. Clarke Street. Then there was the Pumpkin Festival in DeKalb (IL) where I seem to recall lots of pumpkin exhibits on display in front of the local courthouse ... very interesting as was the annual parade in nearby Sycamore, IL. The Speaker of the House of Representatives (Hastert) drove a fire engine in the Sycamore parade - the Scriveners (I think they were called) had an interesting display of small motorized planes! It was hilarious. The number of participants was very high, folks lined the street.

Never seen so many local festivals as I have seen here in the USofA.

ScousePete

We have a mango festival - yummy that one.

Oh, and we have a "Festival of Lights" to celebrate Thomas Edison buying a summer (winter) house here.

TruBrit

well here in houston it's time for the annual rodeo and livestock show....more cowboys in town than usual

dunroving

In the various small rural towns around here, they have:

The collard festival (it's a vegetable)

The shad festival (it's a fish; not to be confused with Patrick's shag festival)

The watermelon festival

The dogwood festival

Where I used to live in middle TN They had my favorite RC Cola-Moon Pie festival, including a beauty contest that is restricted to men only (i.e., contestants are men only): http://www.bellbucklechamber.com/moonpics05.html

Duncan Roberts

Beat this. We have the Duck Tape festival that features a parade where everything is made out of duck tape, including the clothes.

TruBrit

lol omg the mind boggles...you'll have to post some pix pls