Colleen Collier’s favorite part of her job is seeing the smiles on everyones’ faces as they ride the Dentzel Carousel at Burlington City Park.
From small children to older adults and even her own grandkids, it’s been the highlight of her job at Burlington Recreation and Parks for the past two years.
“My grandkids come, they're 8, 9 and 10, they’re the youngest ones and I got a 14 year old, but she does ride the carousel,” Collier said. “I love the people. It's so much fun to see the little kids with smiles on their faces, and it just lightens them up.”
Burlington City Park opened its arms for its 34th annual Carousel Festival on May 3, featuring rides, local businesses, food trucks and musical performances.
Recreation supervisor of special events, Sean Echeverria, has overseen the Carousel Festival for the past three years and has watched it grow ever since the Dentzel Carousel was fully restored and returned to the park in 2022.
According to Burlington Recreation and Parks, the Dentzel Carousel was built between 1906 and 1910 at the Dentzel Carousel Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and purchased by the city of Burlington in 1948. In 2019, the carousel was shipped off to Carousels & Carvings Inc. based in Marion, Ohio, to be refinished and was returned to a new carousel house in City Park in 2022.
Echeverria said that during the restoration process the entire carousel’s mechanisms were digitized in addition to visually restoring the ride to its original state.
“It's all freshly painted and brought back to its original character,” Echeverria said. “The cool thing is, they were actually able to upgrade it from the original mechanism that powered the carousel to now it's all digitalized, and at the push of a button, that thing spins around and around.”
Having worked at Burlington Recreation and Parks for three years and overseeing his third Carousel Festival, Echeverria said he was excited and proud to watch this event come together once again.
“It's probably my favorite event to plan, just because there is so much that goes into it,” Echeverria said. “I do love the fact that we have a two day festival, which it's really tough to pull off a two day thing, because it's tough to be able to coordinate with all of those folks like ‘Hey, you're giving up a whole weekend to be here, and we need you here.’ But it's really nice.”
This weekend is also a favorite of Collier’s who has seen members of different generations visit Burlington City Park, see the Dentzel Carousel and be transported back to their youth.
“Even the older people, when they come, they're like, ‘Oh my gosh, I used to ride this when I was this age,’” Collier said.
Those memories are some of her favorites from working at Burlington Recreation and Parks.
“There was this older lady, she was the great grandparent,” Collier said. “So it was the great grandparent, the grandparents and then the parents, which were grown and the grandkids all here together. I like that, it's really community oriented and really family oriented, bringing everybody together.”
In addition to the many attractions already present at Burlington City Park, local businesses and organizations such as the Painted Grape, Hollywood Horror Show and Maller, and Crawlers Jeep Group came out to the Carousel Festival.
“They offer great services,” Echeverria said. “They're going to come out and they're going to provide those services at a small fee. I think it enhances the experience for festival goers.”
Festivities will continue from noon to 5 p.m. May 4. The carousel and other attractions including the miniature train, planes, cars and boats are currently open on Fridays from 3 to 7 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 7 p.m. Each ride requires tickets which are $1 and can be purchased at Burlington City Park.