Centreville Day Celebration Takes Shape

Organizers working to restore the this year are in the home stretch as they make preparations for the one-day festival in October.

“We have some really exciting ideas,” said Cheryl Repetti, an event organizer. “Because it’s in October, we’ll be able to do fun seasonal things like trick or treating at the historic sites.” 

An all-volunteer group, the Friends of Historic Centreville, met Thursday in an organizing meeting to work out more details of the event. They plan to hold a costume parade for the kids and host ghost tours at Centreville’s oldest structure, the two-story Mount Gilead House in the historic district. The county acquired the converted eighteenth-century tavern in 1996.

Organizers also plan on offering a children’s activity tent, sponsored by the local chapter of Apha Delta Kappa, an international honorary organization of women educators. The group plans to run a contest the day of the festival that will test kids’ knowledge of Centreville and its history. One of the new things organizers want to offer this year are examples of traditional art, like weaving, blacksmithing and candle-dipping. 

The committee has also adopted a branded logo and is seeking more vendors to buy display booths at the festival before a Sept. 1 deadline, when the fees will go up to $135, said Repetti. The festival will be held on Oct. 22. 

This year, getting the event moving along has been especially challenging because the ad-hoc group is working without a budget. The previous nonprofit sponsor dissolved last year and the 2010 celebration was cancelled. 

The committee also selected two honorary co-chairs for Centreville Day, Eileen Curtis, president of the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce, and John Kidwell, a principal with the firm of Kidwell, Kent and Curran and a member of the Friends of Historic Centreville Board. 

Started as a crossroads town known as Newgate village, it was renamed Centreville in 1792 when the Virginia assembly gave it town status – although it never incorporated. During the Civil War, both the Confederate and Union armies occupied the community. 

The festival will be held at the , near the intersection of Route 28 and Route 29. The district is adjacent to a hilltop confederate fort that was abandoned by the southern army in 1862 and taken by the Union forces. It was known as Fort Number 3 on Artillery Hill. 

“Even though we got a late start (with organizing) things are looking up,” Repetti said.