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Community Corner

October May Bring Centreville Day Festival

An ice-cream social will be held in May as a run-up to the event.

An ad-hoc planning group is looking at dates in late October to , hoping to rebuild the one-day festival with new sponsors and a theme that will remind the community of its rich history.

The planning committee met Feb. 17 to discuss ways to resurrect the festival after it was cancelled last year when its nonprofit sponsor was dissolved. Cheryl Repetti is leading the group, the Friends of Historic Centreville, that is trying to re-launch the celebration.

The planning committee is looking at either Oct. 15 or Oct. 22 for this year’s Centreville Days, Repetti said. Things are a bit cooler in October then in September when the festival was previously held. Also, it will give local schools more of a chance to get involved because it’s a little later in the school year, she said.

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Although the festival always pretty much paid for itself in years past by charging vendor fees, the group this year is starting with almost no budget. It’s a daunting task, said Ted McCord, a history professor and committee member.

“We have to approach it like we are starting from the ground up,” said McCord, who is also the resident curator of Mt. Gilead. “It’s like we are starting from scratch all over again.”

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The group came to a consensus that they would have to firm up a date by the next time they meet on March 17. They also want to pursue putting on a parade, which Repetti said has required some heavy lifting in the past. Without a budget, it’s difficult to make transportation commitments to bring in local high school bands, she said.

However, Gene Griffe, service officer for American Legion Post 1995 in Centreville, said there could be a wealth of untapped resources available through the post to provide a band for the parade and musicians to perform on the festival ground. “We just need to reach out to these people,” Griffe said.

Griffe said the parade, which allowed children to spontaneously decorate their bikes or scooters to join in, is an important part of the event.

 “You see the faces of the kids when they get all excited and dress up their bikes for the parade,” Griffe said.

The group also agreed that the festival theme this year should somehow help connect today’s residents with the community’s past. Started as a crossroads town known as Newgate village, it was renamed Centreville in 1792 when the Virginia assembly gave it town status. And, it was occupied and denuded by two armies during the Civil War.

As part of the run-up to the festival this year, a community ice-cream social will be held May 30 at the Spindle Sears House, located in the historic district. It was built in 1934 from a kit from the old Sears, Roebuck & Company catalogue. The house has been restored by the county and it will be open for tours during the event, Repetti said.

For more information, contact Cheryl Repetti at cbrepetti@verizon.net  or 703-830-5407.

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