THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609130249
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 90 lines
ONE NEPTUNE FESTIVAL, organizers got an unexpected call. The portable toilets were sailing down Atlantic Avenue in the face of a stiff ocean gale.
Another year, a horse on its way to the Neptune Festival parade got spooked crossing the Rudee Inlet Bridge and jumped into a nearby convertible.
When Nancy Creech and Bill Center kick back to talk about Neptune Festivals past, the war stories come thick and fast.
So do the laughs. And the obvious sense of pride.
As well they should. Creech, the festival's president, has worked on all 23 of the annual events, starting back when she volunteered for the first one in 1974.
Center, the vice-president, is a comparative newcomer. He's only been involved since 1980, the year he came to town to head up what was then the Virginia Beach Chamber of Commerce.
Between them they have weathered everything from an all-you-can-eat seafood feast woefully lacking in seafood to a near drowning of King Neptune and his entire court.
Not to mention that gusty evening that Creech got a call from the police department while she was attending the festival's annual Senior Ball.
``We think you ought to get out here,'' an officer told her. ``Your Port-A-Johns are rolling down Atlantic Avenue.''
Get out she did, just in time to see dozens of the sturdy little cubicles blowing down the strip ahead of a rip-snorting northeast wind.
As for the seafood fiasco, that happened the first year. ``Our supplier didn't believe the predicted attendance figures we gave him. He prepared for half the number,'' Creech explained.
It was a bad move. Three times the original number showed up. And half of those brought coolers with them. Coolers into which they emptied their heaping plates and returned for more.
It was the first of many learning experiences for the nonprofit organization that works year round to put on the annual fall festival.
And it was the last all-you-can-eat event.
If disappearing seafood was an early problem, weather has been a continuing one.
``The year (former congressman) Bill Whitehurst was King Neptune, we held the parade in a driving rain,'' said Center. ``We rolled out these big sheets of plastic, cut them into squares, cut a hole in the middle of each square and put them over the king and the princesses.''
Even so, the royal court was thoroughly soaked. ``Those poor little girls looked like drowned rats,'' Center said.
At parade's end, robes and gowns had to be dried and the princesses' hair restyled for the next event. ``We only had two hair driers,'' Center said, ``so we ran up Atlantic Avenue borrowing them from every hotel that had one.''
Despite the headaches and frustrations of putting on what is roughly the equivalent of a two-weeklong wedding celebration encompassing dozens of events for a bridal party of hundreds and a guest list of 500,000, Creech and Center have managed to put on an impressive and nearly flawless party over the years.
In an event that has its own official royalty each year, they could well be called the unofficial king and queen of the Neptune Festival.
Don't, however, call them that to their faces.
Both downplay their own roles, preferring to focus on the dedication of the financial supporters, the hundreds of volunteers who donate their time and talents and the thousands of local people who participate in the festival's events.
``We want everyone in Virginia Beach to know that this is their festival,'' Center said. ``It's a time of celebration of all the special things we have to offer in this area - the sand, the sea. It's something for everybody, a time to be alive and happy and ready to enjoy.''
Next year Center will be enjoying the festival in what should be a far more relaxed atmosphere.
The soft-spoken, self-effacing Arkansas native will be retiring from his paid festival position after this year's event. When the last week of September rolls around next year, he'll still be around to enjoy what he has worked so hard on for so many years.
``I'll go to the festival, no doubt about that,'' he said.
And what's Creech going to do when she puts on Neptune Festival XXIV without Center's calm, capable assistance?
``Cry,'' she said, ``just cry.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including color cover, by MORT FRYMAN
``We want everyone in Virginia Beach to know that this is their
festival,'' says Bill Center, the retiring vice-president of the
Neptune Festival. ``It's a time of celebration of all the special
things we have to offer in this area - the sand, the sea. It's
something for everybody. . . . ''
Bill Center will be retiring from his paid festival position after
this year's event. But, ``I'll go the the festival, no doubt about
that,'' he said. by CNB