Clarksville Virginia's 30th Annual Lake Festival

It is hard to believe today is the start of Clarksville, Virginia's 30^th Annual Lake Festival- "Lakefest" to us locals. For one short weekend our quiet little Mom and Pop town turns into a frenzied hubbub. Clarksville becomes a center stage attraction as tens of thousands of people flock to what the Southeast Tourism Society regards as "one of the Top 20 Events in the Southeast."

The Festival kicks off on Friday with the Rescue Squad's Pig Pickin' plates. Take your dinner with you as you head on over to Welcoming Ceremonies, where there's plenty of live entertainment and music to enjoy. All day Saturday nearly 200 Arts and Crafts and Food vendors line both sides of Virginia Avenue from 2^nd to 7^th Street.

There is something for everyone to enjoy including the Hot Air Balloon Show, Sandsculpting Artists, Children's Rides and Games, Exhibits, Antique Auto Show, and Helicopter Rides. To celebrate the 30^th Anniversary this year there will even be a Longaberger Basket weaving demonstration and a special commemorative Lakefest basket. There's more music and entertainment and then the boats gather for a spectacular fireworks display, which begins after dark.

It's fantastic! It's exciting! If you are anywhere else this weekend you are sincerely missing out on an event that should easily rank in the "Top 10 things I want to do at least once before I die." Why? Well, a lot of talented and hard-working people spend an entire year making this a truly great event. I have been around for 28 of these Lakefest years, and only missed a few, yet my memories are not ones I'll soon forget. As I myself am nearly approaching the 30-years-old mark, I wanted to share a few reflections about growing up in my town.

The buzz of excitement around Lakefest starts with the T-shirts. The annual T-shirt is a staple in fashion for anyone who is anyone. It is the one article of clothing that everyone could wear to school and it didn't matter if fifty other kids were wearing the same thing. In fact, there were numerous jokes that the Lakefest shirts could double as school uniforms, along with some grassroot efforts among the social cliques to see how many kids we could recruit to wear the shirt on the same day.

You could also wear all your previous year shirts and no one really cared, though the challenge was generally who could get the new shirt first. When you grow up in a little town the small things bring us such immense pleasure.

Each year the Chamber of Commerce holds a design contest and the winning design ends up on the tee. The design is supposed to showcase what "Lakefest" really means. Well, since the vital elements of Lakefest are vendors, fireworks, hot air balloons, and the lake, it becomes entertainment to see how creative the next aspiring artist can be to, in essence, say the same exact thing in a different way.

I fondly recall the 80's met with some rather simplistic designs of iconic triangle sailboats, and it seemed like a few years went by where it was hard to distinguish what exactly was so different about the designs. I remember it was pretty exciting around here when we got color t-shirts too! We knew we were moving up in the world particularly the year the tees were pink, lime, and yellow. The shirts always give members in our community a hot topic to debate too.

"Got your shirt yet?"

"Why on earth are they so bright this year?"

"I'll look like a hot air balloon wearing it!"

"You could mistake the shirt FOR the fireworks show!"

Ah. It's one of those timeless debates about how things change, yet always stay the same. Yep. A closet of old Lakefest t-shirts defines the cliché, and we love every single one of them. If you think you can design better, submit your design to the Chamber of Commerce sometime around January. Show us what you got! We'll wear it!

We have complete bragging rights to beautiful Buggs Island Lake. It's the largest man-made lake, and we know too as we had to learn all about it in school. It's a wonderful place for fishing, boating, water-skiing, swimming, camping, and anything else you want to do in the water. It's also rather appropriately named so make sure you don't forget insect repellent!

Lakefest weekend is notorious for somehow always falling on the hottest weekend of the summer, but there's nothing quite like being in the middle of the lake with thousands of other boats to see the huge fireworks display. Early in the afternoon the parties on the lake start. The Redneck Yacht Club has absolutely nothing on Buggs Island Lake, as it's an open invitation, all-day long trip to Margarita Ville! Bring your inner tubes, your floats, your water wings, and a life jacket for the dog too! It's fun, it's relaxing, and as long as you decide ahead of time not to be in a hurry, the crowd won't bother you.

When the fireworks start at dark, it's amazing to be part of the lakefront show. On the water is THE place to be to truly experience Lakefest in its finest moments of sheer splendor.

BOOM! Ba-Ba-Ba BOOM! Each explosion echoes from the center of the lake to the distant shoreline. You hold your breath in anticipation as millions of tiny shooting stars ignite, mirror themselves on the shimmery water, and quickly burn out against the pitch, black sky. The lake is still then immediately comes to life again as boats honk their horns in approval.

People yell, whoop, and holler, and wildly scream for more as the loud booming explosions continue to fill the night air. The rippling waves gently rock you, not to sleep, but to awaken something hidden within you. You're not exactly sure what it is, but it continues to intensify. It's quiet, deafening, motionless, and alive all at once. It is an incredible mixture of equal and opposite interactions and sensations. You are slap dab in the very middle of it all.

The grand finale always arrives far too soon. The disappointment is inevitable but as the smoke dissipates and the boats head slowly back to shore the sensations linger. They pulsate in your bones and also in your heart. No matter where you travel, you never forget a Clarksville Lake Festival on the lake.

Year after year you never forget.

You never forget the year you were sick. You cried and cried because "everyone" was going to see the fireworks but you.

You never forget the year your best friend wandered off to enjoy the fireworks with a guy her mother didn't approve of her dating. It only became a problem when her mother found you walking up and down the sidewalk of Virginia Avenue without her daughter. You were a year older so that meant you were supposed to be the responsible one. Not to mention, at least a thousand other folks knew it as she ripped you a new one.

You never forget the first time you were French kissed or how the fireworks you felt on your insides paled in comparison to the fireworks you were kicking yourself for missing on the outside all because your eyes were shut.

You never forget the year your boyfriend said he had to work all weekend, but then you saw him working pretty hard at getting into another girl's blouse and putting on another public fireworks display.

You never forget your first underage and bittersweet taste of Boones Farm Strawberry Hill laced with fresh cut grass and hotdogs on the grill. Cheap food and even cheaper wine, yet completely priceless!

When you grow up with Lakefest it becomes a part of you. It is the epiphany of each and every summer and you know it. It's part of who you are.

If you can't make it here this weekend, there's always next year. We do this every year on the third weekend in July so mark your calendar now. Come experience it for yourself, and maybe I'll see you there.