THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606040098
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: S02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Seawall Festival 1996
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 124 lines
IT'S FESTIVAL TIME on the Elizabeth River.
The annual three-day celebration of life on the waterfront begins today at noon with the arrival of the Parade of Sail in the harbor between Norfolk and Portsmouth.
The Seawall Festival and Harborfest will be under way for the 20th year.
Undercover, a band that plays music for everybody, will sound the first notes on the stage along the Seawall in the Signet Bank parking lot. The Ferris wheel will begin to turn in the Max parking lot. And all the people who bought spaces on the Carrie B, chartered for the parade by the Portsmouth Division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, will step off the boat into the middle of a citywide party.
More than 100,000 people are expected to turn out for the party between noon today and 6 p.m. Sunday. If the weather is dry and comfortable, the crowd likely will be even larger. By far the largest number of people attend the festival on Saturday, when more than 80,000 have been known to crowd the waterfront from High Street around Crawford Bay to the Naval Hospital grounds.
The Seawall Festival has moved more and more to a family affair, and Ports Events director Linda Lamm said it won't be a whole lot different this year.
``It doesn't change much as long as it works,'' she said. ``If people like it, why not do it the same, tweaking it here and there from year to year? We've found our niche with family things.
``It's a real family affair. It's for children, about children and even by children.''
In fact, this year's festival layout is being changed to accommodate requests from parents who said the children's section was too spread out in 1995.
``We're going to have as many activities, but we're going to shrink the area they cover,'' Lamm said. ``Parents wanted it closer together and more convenient.''
As a result, Lamm has space to expand the craft show on the street between Signet Bank and Portside.
``We're doubling it this year from 20 crafters to 40 crafters,'' Lamm said. ``People who don't want to spend all their time eating and drinking like the craft fair a lot.''
Lamm said the participants are screened to find crafters whose work is original and handmade. Many of the crafters will be returning for the third year of the show.
``The chair man will be back,'' she said. She was talking about Ron Sinquesield of Charlotte, N.C., a man who makes canvas and wood outdoor furniture.
``He sells out every year before everybody gets what they want,'' she said. ``One question I hear over and over: will the chair man be back?''
Two of the most popular attractions are the Ferris wheel and the appearance of Bill Deal, a Portsmouth native, and Ammon Tharp.
Traditionally, Bill Deal and Ammon Tharp have appeared on Friday night. Last year, Lamm decided to move them to Sunday afternoon to increase the crowds on that day.
``Well, I learned,'' Lamm said. ``I'm not messing with that again. Bill Deal and Ammon Tharp are back on Friday night. I won't change it again.''
Bill Deal, no doubt, will pack them in tonight.
``He's from here. He's like family, and people turn out for him,'' Lamm said.
She said it's interesting that the crowds follow patterns each year.
``It's mostly local on Friday, starting when people who work Downtown go to lunch and then after work,'' she said. ``On Saturday, there's more of a regional crowd, and many are in family groups. Sunday is the day more older people come out, many with grandchildren in tow.''
Of course, all groups of people flock Downtown on Saturday night for the 9:30 fireworks spectacular, she said.
The children's area and the children's stage are a major drawing card for the festival.
``Families like the rides - the Ferris wheel, merry-go-round and others - in the Max parking lot,'' she said.
In addition to the big rides there, the festival features ``kiddie rides'' near Lafayette Arch, a petting zoo, pony rides, moonwalk and a tent of many activities.
Entertainment on the water stage will be especially for children, with children actually performing all day Saturday.
``The interesting thing about our children's activities is that they are pre-approved by a committee of three schoolteachers, and they tell what is suitable for what ages,'' Lamm said.
The teachers are Anna-Marie Davis of Hunt-Mapp Middle School, Kay Moulton of Woodrow Wilson High School and Tammy Simpson of Douglass Park Elementary School.
``They also are recruiting high school students to come and work with the little children,'' Lamm said. ``I think that is good because that's how we get young people to grow up to become adult volunteers.''
Lamm said the festival's very existence depends on the 700 volunteers who organize it, set it up and keep it humming for three days.
``We have only six staff people to work, and they can't work all three days from morning till closing,'' she said. ``There's no way we'd have a Seawall Festival without volunteers.''
It takes several hundred of the volunteers just to dispense beer and soft drinks, she said.
``We ask businesses to encourage their employees to volunteer for certain tasks,'' Lamm said. ``Sometimes we'll get a whole group from one place who come to pour beverages together.''
Danny Swanson, a Downtown resident who has worked for years on the festival, is serving his second year as steering committee chairman.
``Everything is ready,'' he said. ``Ninety-nine percent of the work is recruitment of volunteers, and we've had 15 committees working for months.''
Being chairman is easy, he said, compared to all the committee chairman who must get volunteers to work for all three days.
Swanson said he enjoys the festival and likes to work to get it going.
``It's good for the city,'' he said. ``It brings people Downtown, and it brings them together. It gets people ready to enjoy the summer after being shut in all winter.''
It's important, Swanson said, to have visitors see what is going on in Portsmouth.
On Saturday, at least once, Lamm will put down her intercom and take off her badge, then walk around and listen to festival-goers.
``When I hear them say they haven't been here for a while and that Portsmouth looks good or that the Seawall is wonderful for kids, then I know we've done our job,'' she said.
The mission of Ports Events is to attract people to the city from other places.
``This week when people call to ask directions because they've never been to Portsmouth, I feel good,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff file photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
Children got to pet a mounted policeman's horse at last year's
festival. The weekend event is designed to appeal to children as
well as adults. by CNB