Carytown Watermelon Festival - Richmond, VA
The Carytown Watermelon Festival is a free one-day festival each August in Richmond, VA offering a variety of vendors, food, and live music.
festival Features
The Carytown Watermelon Festival includes craft vendors, food vendors, and live music.
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One of my favorite parts of the Carytown Watermelon Festival was the watermelon. There were watermelon stands every block throughout the festival selling large bowls/cups of fresh cut watermelon for only $2. The watermelon was fresh, ripe, and very affordable!
Vendors
The festival included a single row of vendor tents running all the way down Cary Street in Carytown. Some of the vendors were selling homemade good like clothes, soaps, and art. There were also quite a few large commercial businesses with booths just for advertising, such as the hospital and phone companies. I think that the single row of booths down the center of the street was intended to promote people visiting the businesses on either side of the street as well. Many of the businesses along Cary Steet had watermelon specials.
Live Music
There were about four tents with live music throughout the festival. It seemed to be small local artists groups, many of them acoustic. There was a general performance schedule but it didn’t seem to be followed too strictly. The music was not that good but it was a fun thing to have included in the festivities.
Kids Zone
The Watermelon Festival included a large kids zone in the center. It included some fair rides, bounce houses, and face painting. This area had several ice cream trucks as well.
Food Vendors
Throughout
the festival there were many food trucks. Most of them were local food trucks
or the traveling fair food stands. I saw
Greek, Jamaican, Spanish, Desserts, and Fair Food available. I tried out the
mac and cheese balls at Big Wife’s Mac and Cheese Truck. They were a pretty
tasty choice to walk and snack on. There was also a large beer garden area with
watermelon themed drinks at the end of the street.
Who Goes Here?
Mostly families and couples attended the Carytown Watermelon Festival.
Venue
The Carytown Watermelon Festival is held in the historic Carytown section of Richmond, VA. The street is shut down and vendors set up down the middle of the street. It is a very cool historic street. I found the festival was a good opportunity to look at all the businesses in Carytown without traffic. The area was relatively clean but a bit hectic with the amount of people at the festival.
Location
Carytown is a very good central location in downtown Richmond. It is just off the interstate and near a lot of shops and businesses. The downside was parking. There is basically no parking so you can park in the adjacent neighborhood along the street for free or in a garage for a fee. Therefore, all of the parking is quite far away so you should be prepared to walk a bit.
Summary
Overall, I enjoyed the Carytown Watermelon Festival. It offered a fair amount of craft vendors, food trucks and entertainment. I would suggest getting there early to get a close parking spot. I would also suggest looking at the watermelon specials at the restaurants as well.
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