Festival for the Eno

What it is: Although the weather is cool right now, summer is coming in Durham. Summer in Durham makes me think of the Festival for the Eno which happens over July 4th weekend each year. It is a fabulous festival on the banks of the Eno River. There's music with several stages playing all types of music, countless craft booths with local artisans selling their wares, some great Durham food with booths from such local eateries as Chubby's Tacos (Blog post coming soon about this place!), the Grist Mill, the river itself, and much more. To me, it represented all that it good about living in Durham, and we had a great time last year with my son.

What we liked: We liked everything about the festival, especially the variety of things to see and do. Some of our favorites were the homemade ice cream (If anyone knows who provided it please let me know.), the location of the festival on the edge of the river, the variety of music to listen to, and the sandcastle carving demonstration. We wished we could have joined in with some of the river activities, but we didn't have enough time that day. The parking situation was also convenient. We parked at a the Durham County Stadium on Duke St. and were shuttled to the festival, so there was no waiting in traffic or messy parking situations at the actual river.

What we would change: We had such a good time, I don't know that there's anything we would change. I do remember having a difficult time finding somewhere to sit to eat our lunch, but this would have been remedied had we brought chairs in order to listen to the music. Perhaps bringing a blanket to sit on would have been the perfect solution.

Website and other important information: The Festival for the Eno is located at West Point on the Eno in Northern Durham.

Website: http://www.enoriver.org/Festival/

Dates and Times: July 3, 4, and 5 2010 (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday), 10am-6pm daily.

Cost: Children 12 and under are free. All others are $10 a day for advance online tickets in May or $15 at the gate.

Photos:

1. Dancers perform on one of the stages.


2. Adults and kids play in the river participating in a variety of river activities.


3. A band performs on another one of the stages.


4. Some of the many craft vendors at the festival