THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505050191
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LORI A. DENNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
The 12th annual Pungo Strawberry Festival will reach to the beach.
This year, as part of the traditional down-home festival, the Virginia Symphony Pops will perform a free concert at 7 p.m. May 26 at the 24th Street Park.
The concert, featuring Broadway music, will kick off the Memorial Day weekend festivities, the rest of which will take place in Downtown Pungo.
While that will get the holiday weekend under way, the festival, with the theme this year of ``The Berry Merry Month of May,'' actually gets started two weeks earlier with a championship rodeo. It will be held at 8 p.m. May 12 and 13 and at 2 p.m. May 14 at Princess Anne Park.
Advance tickets are $8; those sold at the gate are $10. Children 6 and under will be admitted free.
In addition to the Virginia Symphony Pops concert May 26, the Strawberry Festival Carnival will open at 5 p.m. that same Friday and will offer a special one-price deal to ride all night. Parking for the carnival only will be set up at the corner of Princess Anne and Muddy Creek roads.
The Memorial Day festival opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. on May 27 and 28.
The festival Grand Parade - featuring 95 units that will include marching bands, floats and veterans groups - will begin at 11 a.m. that Saturday.
In the midst of the parade will be this year's festival dignitaries, including Jake Jacocks Jr., chairman; Ken Stolle, grand marshal; Floyd Taylor and Madge Huffman Taylor, Honorary Mayor of Pungo and First Lady of Pungo; and Joyce Whitehurst Salmons, Honorary Witch of Pungo.
Other weekend-long events are: a country exhibit area and demonstrations, arts and crafts shows with 100-plus artisans and craftsmen, youth art exhibit, a Ruritan Country Auction (held throughout the weekend), 4-H displays and petting zoos, continuous entertainment on three stages, agricultural exhibits, pony rides, pig racing, health screenings, senior citizens area, Civil War encampment area with cannons and horses, an Armed Forces display area, an old-fashioned steam engine exhibit and antique engine display, diaper changing area and parent rest area, Llama exhibit, Elizabethan exhibit and a special hand-cancellation of mail at the festival by the U.S. Post office.
Popular Sunday events include the 8 a.m. Strawberry Festival 5K and 1-mile run; a 1 p.m. strawberry pie eating contest; and at noon final judging of the Johnson & Wales University Strawberry Cook-Off.
Parking at the festival will be available for 40,000 vehicles. The three sites for parking are the Pungo Air Strip on Princess Anne Road, the intersection of Princess Anne and Indian River roads, and Princess Anne Road at Muddy Creek Road.
Cost to park at the festival lot is $4 per vehicle. A park and ride lot also will be available at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, at Princess Anne and North Landing roads. Parking is free at the lot, but the cost of a round-trip shuttle ride is $2 for adults and $1 for children under 6.
Shuttles will run every 15 minutes. MEMO: For more information on the 12th annual Pungo Strawberry Festival, call
the festival headquarters at 721-6001.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by PETER D. SUNDBERG
This year's festival poster, like all previous posters, was designed
by a Virginia Beach Vocational Technical student. Derek Watford's
poster was chosen from among five others.
by CNB