From towering inflatable slides to a clown making colorful balloon animals, the landscape of Burlington’s City Park was vibrant for this year’s 25th annual Burlington Carousel Festival.
“The City Park is our largest park and serves as the location of our yearly festival,” said Mary Faucette, special events supervisor for the Burlington Recreation and Parks Department. “It allows the community to stay local for an event, and since most of our rides are free, it provides a fun outing that’s affordable for families.”
The festival celebrates the legacy of the 100-year-old Dentzel Menagerie Carousel, which features 46 hand-carved animals and greets guests as they enter the park. The carousel is especially significant because it builds memories for children who come to the festival every year with their families to ride the carousel, according to Faucette.
“The carousel is always a lot of fun for children as they come back and have a new experience each time,” Faucette said. “Eventually, they can come back as adults and bring their own children, so it’s a timeless piece that creates memories all throughout their lives.”
This year’s festival featured an array of children’s activities, food vendors, live music performances and more than 50 local artists selling their work, including artisan Randy Everett from Colfax. Everett started a full-time carving business when he lost his job in communications in 2001. He started selling his hand-carved signs and large chainsaw carvings at the festival eight years ago.
“There are a lot of good people here at the festival and a lot of regulars,” Everett said. “A lot of the same people come here and watch me carve every year, and they always like to see me doing different stuff.”
The festival also presented an opportunity for local organizations to promote their work.
Teen to Teen Theatre will be presenting “Alice in Wonderland Jr.” Sept. 27-30, so the show’s teen actors came to the festival dressed in costume to hand out fliers advertising a preview of their performance. Madeline Wilvers, who plays the Queen of Hearts in the show and is also a student in Elon Academy, said she was excited to enjoy the festival while promoting her play.
“I’ve really liked walking around and seeing all of the different booths because you can do everything from getting hand-drawn horse pictures to getting your face painted,” Wilvers said. “There are also other shows advertising here, so it’s cool to see all the variety.”
Festival attendees were pleased with the diverse variety of activities, according to Stephanie Meadows and Troy Horan, who recently moved to the Burlington area after Horan accepted a position at LabCorp.
“We’re impressed by a lot of the art stuff that we specifically came out to enjoy,” Meadows said. “We actually hadn’t been to the carousel itself, so it was pretty interesting to come out and see the carousel, as well as experience how big of an impact the festival has on this community.”
The positive effect on the community is what Faucette said she loves most about the festival, and she’s glad to see all of the hard work of the Recreation and Parks Department come together year after year.
“It’s a team effort across the department for planning and executing the event,” Faucette said. “We love seeing the community participate and embrace everything about the festival.”