Annual Festival showcases best of Annandale



Gavin Dock

Perfect weather and a large crowd helped make the Annandale Parade and Festival Saturday a huge success. The parade (see photos in previous post) featured marching bands from Annandale and Falls Church high schools; several Bolivian dance groups, including Sangre Boliviana Sambos Caporales Virginia and Fraternidad Tinkus Wapurys Tiataco; circus acts, civic groups, politicians, scout groups, classic cars, Shriners in tiny cars and on Segways, and much more.

The festival, in the Safeway parking lot, offered lots of food and craft venders, music, kids’ activities, martial arts demonstrations, a NASCAR simulator, climbing structure, and plenty of booths showcasing local businesses and nonprofit organizations. Falls Church High School marketing students were there selling Jaguar Joe, a special blend of coffee from Beanetics. It wasn’t exactly a cross-section of Annandale, though. I didn’t see any Korean businesses or groups in the parade or festival. In fact, if this event was your first experience with Annandale, you wouldn’t know there is a large Korean presence here.

The annual event is sponsored by the Annandale Chamber of Commerce, and Gavin Dock, the chamber’s president, says it couldn’t have happened without a huge amount of help from a lot of volunteers. “I’m really impressed by how many people donated a couple of hours here and a couple of hours there,” he says. Dock specifically recognized the “tremendous amount of help” from Burke & Herbert Bank and Carol Zach-Reuss, manager of the Annandale Shopping Center.

The chamber is launching a new “Buy Annandale” campaign to encourage residents to patronize local shops. “We have so many great businesses here in Annandale,” Dock says.

Hapmudo students show off their skills.

Everything Blue performs at the festival.