30th Lilac Festival: Let the Fun Begin

  • Children of all ages, from young to old to in-between, will find fun and friends at the 30th Annual Lilac Festival in Pine Mountain Village May 19-20. The festival kicks off with a 10 a.m. Maypole dance by Pine Mountain Learning Center students and others who wish to join in.

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    Children of all ages, from young to old to in-between, will find fun and friends at the 30th Annual Lilac Festival in Pine Mountain Village May 19-20. The festival kicks off with a 10 a.m. Maypole dance by Pine Mountain Learning Center students and others who wish to join in.

  • Children of all ages, from young to old to in-between, will find fun and friends at the 30th Annual Lilac Festival in Pine Mountain Village May 19-20. There are fun activities for children and lots of intriguing vendors' booths for all ages, plus music groups and dancers in the gazebo.

    Image 2 of 5
    Children of all ages, from young to old to in-between, will find fun and friends at the 30th Annual Lilac Festival in Pine Mountain Village May 19-20. There are fun activities for children and lots of intriguing vendors' booths for all ages, plus music groups and dancers in the gazebo.

  • Children of all ages, from young to old to in-between, will find fun and friends at the 30th Annual Lilac Festival in Pine Mountain Village May 19-20. There are fun activities for children and lots of intriguing vendors' booths for all ages, plus music groups and dancers in the gazebo. This is a glimpse of Lilac Festival from our archives.

    Image 3 of 5
    Children of all ages, from young to old to in-between, will find fun and friends at the 30th Annual Lilac Festival in Pine Mountain Village May 19-20. There are fun activities for children and lots of intriguing vendors' booths for all ages, plus music groups and dancers in the gazebo. This is a glimpse of Lilac Festival from our archives.

  • Children of all ages, from young to old to in-between, will find fun and friends at the 30th Annual Lilac Festival in Pine Mountain Village May 19-20. There are fun activities for children and lots of intriguing vendors' booths for all ages, plus music groups and dancers in the gazebo.

    Image 4 of 5
    Children of all ages, from young to old to in-between, will find fun and friends at the 30th Annual Lilac Festival in Pine Mountain Village May 19-20. There are fun activities for children and lots of intriguing vendors' booths for all ages, plus music groups and dancers in the gazebo.

  • Yes, the pony rides are back! You'll find them hosted by Pine Mountain Auto Center. Children of all ages, from young to old to in-between, will find fun and friends at the 30th Annual Lilac Festival in Pine Mountain Village May 19-20. There are fun activities for children and lots of intriguing vendors' booths for all ages, plus music groups and dancers in the gazebo.

    Image 5 of 5
    Yes, the pony rides are back! You'll find them hosted by Pine Mountain Auto Center. Children of all ages, from young to old to in-between, will find fun and friends at the 30th Annual Lilac Festival in Pine Mountain Village May 19-20. There are fun activities for children and lots of intriguing vendors' booths for all ages, plus music groups and dancers in the gazebo.

By Patric Hedlund

When you find yourself watching the annual rhythm of local seasons as closely as others watch their stock portfolio, you know you are becoming a true "mountaineer." Spring snows melted as May arrived. Daffodils, tulips, poppies and lupine popped up. When purple lilacs burst into bloom throughout our neighborhoods, fun-loving residents turned their thoughts to the mountain’s festival season ahead.

Pine Mountain Village gets wild and crazy first, breaking the spell of cabin fever that accompanies mountain winters. The village has hosted Lilac Festival for 30 years, kicking off the cycle of traditional festivals that define life here during the spring and summer. This weekend, May 19-20, children of all ages will find a line-up that includes pony rides and giant slides, stilt walkers, the Bella Circo Aerialists (performing an aerial circus act throughout both days next to the Pine Mountain Village gazebo) and terrific bands such as Judge Jackson.

The theme for the festival is "Everything Spring," according to co-coordinator Brenda Gordon.

You’ll want to visit the vendors while meeting friends and neighbors. A May Pole dance at 10 a.m. begins the fun on Saturday. Invite your off-mountain friends to come up. It’s a great excuse for a visit. Everyone is welcome. This is a free, public event from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

The next weekend, the Ridge Route Run car show on Saturday, May 26 will transform Frazier Park in an event filled with community spirit, celebration and love for the art of restoring classic cars.

There will be a veterans’ services van, a Houchin blood bank bus and food bank donations, along with the classic cars from all over California.

Two wine festivals, back-toback, start with the Pine Mountain Wine Festival and Art Walk on Saturday, June 2 from 12 noon to 4 p.m. to make the village the ultimate destination in wine tasting and art gazing. That is followed on June 9 with Wine In The Pines, from 12 noon to 3 p.m., bringing more fine wine and beer tasting. The Mountain Shakespeare Festival performs its magic every weekend through July; Fiesta Days is three days over the first weekend in August in Frazier Mountain Park; followed by the Center of the World Festival in the Pine Mountain Village gazebo.

This is part of the May 18, 2012 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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