This year’s plan for annual town festival: Don’t change a thing
By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
If you need help remembering what day Carrboro Day is, take a glance at the calendar and check out the first Sunday in May. That’s the day, this year and every year.
“That date is chiseled in stone. Then we don’t have to change the yard signs,” Catherine DeVine, co-chair of this year’s festivities said in a recent interview.
The event, sponsored by the town’s Recreation & Parks Department, is Sunday, May 6 from 12:30 to 7 p.m. at the Town Commons. The rain location is the Century Center.
The only change to expect this year, DeVine said, is the music lineup, and that’s the intent.
“We wanted to change nothing,” DeVine said. “Carrboro Day is charmed, I believe.”
DeVine, co-chair Tom Arnel and a group of about eight organizers have been meeting since January to put together this year’s event, which is the 12th celebration since the town holiday was started in 1996.
The Day, DeVine said, has a kind of schmaltzy timelessness, a cheerful, small-town celebration. “You can stroll onto the lawn at the Town Commons and be transported back to Carrboro Day in the 1940s.”
Then and now, that means a day of food and games, music, storytelling and poetry. There’ll also be firehouse tours from 12:30 to 6 p.m. and displays by the town’s Public Works department. For part of the day, events will be broadcast live on WCOM.
The biggest decision of the day comes around 11 a.m., when organizers have to make the call of whether the show goes on inside at the Century Center or outside at the Town Commons.
“We rise early and look at the sky,” DeVine said. The event has never had to move indoors mid-day, but making the call is sometimes difficult. “There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than iffy weather.”
Rain or shine, the event goes on. If storms are going to require an indoor event, the news will be broadcast on WCHL and WCOM and posted on the town’s Website and at Carrboro.com.
Music Schedule
12:30-1:00 Village Band
1:15- 1:45 L in Japanese
2:00-2:30 Bo Lozoff & Friends
2:45-3:15 Shannon O’Connor
3:30-4:00 Great Big Gone
4:15-4:45 Lo K Shun
5:00-5:30 Too Much Fun
5:45-6:15 Saludos Compay
6:30-7:00 Storm Front
Stories & Magic
2:00 Ã 4:00 Deep Magic of Joshua Lozoff
2:00 Ã 3:00 Mother Goose
Events
Firehouse Tours and EMT Demos 12:30 – 6:00
Public Works Display 12:30 – 6:00
Library Book / Bake Sale 12:30 – 5:00
Family Health Display 1:00 – 6:00
Plant Exchange 1:00 – 4:00
Carrboro Video 2:00 – 4:00
Family Crafts 2:00 – 5:00
Family Games 3:00 – 5:00
Poetry Reading 4:00 – 5:30
Free Pizza 6:00 – 7:00