THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 4, 1994 TAG: 9406040254
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940604 LENGTH: NORFOLK
Town Point Park came alive early Friday morning, long before the Harborfest flag was raised at noon marking the start of the three-day party. By the time the sail parade arrived, thousands of people were lining the park promenade, and thousands more crowded windows of downtown office buildings for a good view.
{REST} ``The crowds are great. Some people have told me that this is the biggest crowd we've ever had on a Friday,'' said Janet Thornhill, Harborfest's chairwoman.
People coming to the park could dance to the big band sounds, tour sailing ships, change diapers and breast-feed, enjoy Polish sausage. . . uh, change what?
Yup. One of the additions to the festival this year is purely service- and comfort-oriented - an out-of-the-way tent where diapers can been easily changed and babies can be breast-fed in relative privacy.
``I think it's wonderful,'' Vickie Baker, 34, of Newport News said after changing the diaper of her 2-year-old son, Aaron.
Normally, a diaper change would have taken about 45 minutes. ``I'd have had to walk to the parking lot and walk back,'' Baker said. ``And changing in the car is not very convenient or comfortable for him or me.''
The tent, on the promenade walkway between Nauticus and the Town Point Park mast, will be open all weekend.
It was organized by Anita Green and Karen Swiney, the chairwoman and vice chairwoman, respectively, of the public information committee under whose jurisdiction dirty diapers fall. By midafternoon Friday, about 20 diapers had been changed.
``What's funny is neither of us has children,'' Swiney said. And they don't change diapers. ``If you expect Anita or I to do it, you're really in trouble.''
The service provides tables, paper, cleaning products, baby toys, diapers if needed and even sun block especially designed for children. It's all free.
``To get volunteers I had to call in a whole lot of favors,'' Swiney said. But she lined them up - more than 30 in all. ``I even have men coming in.''
While there were a few bottlenecks Friday, getting around the park was relatively easy. That was something of a surprise given that the festival has been reshaped for 1994, largely due to a loss of open space.
The festival used to schedule programming in the Freemason Harbor area and on the Banana Pier, where Nauticus now stands. Now, everything is in an area running from in front of the Omni International Hotel to the north end of Town Point Park near Nauticus.
Community Lane, which features games and contests - many held as fund-raisers for charitable groups - has been relocated to Waterside Drive in front of Waterside.
Also to better utilize space, the number of vendors has been cut from about 65 to 50, Thornhill said. Many vendors have been located on or near the street. ``We wanted to leave more open space in the park,'' she said.
The vendors are offering a wide variety of items, Thornhill said. ``In fact, there's someone out there - I forget the name - but they have this cinnamon-apple pie with ice cream on it. It looks wonderful. I think I'm going to go pig out.''
There were only a few problems Friday.
The Harborfest schedule was adjusted, thanks to one mishap. A mid-afternoon performance by the Don Johnson Air Show was scrubbed after a chase plane had a run-in with a van at Norfolk International Airport.
The plane's wing tip clipped the van while the aircraft was taxiing on the ground. Damage was minimal and no one was hurt, but the incident required an investigation and that made it impossible to run the afternoon show. An evening show was not affected.
Otherwise, all seemed to be going well Friday.
Mary Margarett Lyons of Norfolk relaxed on a huge anchor at the Town Point Park entrance Friday afternoon, sipping a brew with her husband while waiting for friends. She couldn't drink beer back when she first came to a Harborfest.
That was in 1976, when the first riverfront celebration was held as part of the nation's bicentennial celebration, a party that later evolved into Harborfest. ``I was just 13 years old,'' she said.
She says she's been back every year since.
by CNB