Annual Events & Festivals - Annual Events
If you enjoy planning a vacation around a special event, a trip to the Historic Triangle offers plenty of options. While a summer excursion virtually guarantees a jam-packed itinerary of historic tours, sun-soaked shopping, and theme park rowdiness, the three other seasons can be just as glorious. And although the local festival season doesn’t swing into high gear until April, you’ll find a smattering of activities to choose from during the year’s first quarter, a good time to visit if you don’t like to fight crowds.
If you schedule your visit during spring break or later, your choice of fun activities pretty much runs the gamut. From the ever-popular performances of Shakespeare’s plays to the rousing sounds of Scottish bagpipes to the exquisite lights of Christmas, the Williamsburg area gives you a diverse menu of events and activities from which to choose.
Below, we’ve listed the major—and a few more low-key but fun—celebrations that take place in and around the Williamsburg area. For those of you willing to drive a little farther for a good time, we’ve also included some of our favorite celebrations that take place in other pockets of Hampton Roads. Our annual events and festivals are listed month by month to make your vacation planning a little easier. The prices we provide are subject to change, but they should give you a solid ballpark figure to use when tallying up that vacation budget. We have noted where events in the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area are included in your ticket purchase.
1. Working Wood In The 18Th Century
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (800) 603-0948
Address: 326 W. Francis St.
Description: The annual Working Wood in the 18th Century conference is cosponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Fine Woodworking magazine. Registration for the popular conference begins when the brochure is mailed in September. These programs have filled to capacity every year, so those interested are encouraged to register early. To be added to the mailing list, submit your postal address to dchapman@cwf.org or call the number listed above.
2. Antiques Forum
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (800) 603-0948
Description: In early February the Antiques Forum comes to Colonial Williamsburg, bringing collectors and experts who share their knowledge in seminars, attend lectures given by Colonial Williamsburg’s curators, take special tours, and socialize. The forum brings together scholars, collectors, and antiques buffs to reexamine past judgments about American decorative arts. The five-day event cost $600 in 2009 which included all lectures, tours, special programming, opening receptions, and continental breakfasts, coffees, and afternoon teas Registration begins in October.
3. Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival Week
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (215) 862-5828
Description: Explore an American art form that has developed and grown with the nation. The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival Week is a compilation of four exciting quilting, fiber-arts, and wearable-art shows and is the perfect place for quilters and wearable, textile, and fiber artists of all levels and ages to explore these arts. In all, more than 500 quilts, wearables, dolls, and textiles are on exhibit; workshops, lectures, and special activities are held the last week in February.
4. Presidents Weekend
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: Programs throughout the weekend highlight the actions and experiences of three Virginians—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison—who all served as president of the United States.
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
6. Military Through The Ages
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (757) 253-4838
Description: Reenactment groups depicting soldiers and military encounters throughout history join forces with modern-day veterans and active units to demonstrate camp life, tactics, and weaponry. The event features a Saturday children’s parade and a Sunday military pass-in-review.
7. St. Patrick’S Day Parade
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (757) 587-3548
Description: This particular wearin’-of-the-green event may not take place in Williamsburg, but if you’re in the mood to celebrate your Irish heritage or simply wish to get caught up in the revelry, check out Norfolk’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festivities. The parade, held the Saturday closest to St. Paddy’s Day, is the area’s oldest and largest. The route typically begins at 10 a.m. at Northside Middle School on Granby Street (about 45 minutes from Williamsburg on I-64 East on a good day) and winds up at the Knights of Columbus Hall on West Government Street for the after-party.
8. Williamsburg Film Festival
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: This might be better titled the Williamsburg Classic TV Show Festival. This three-day event in mid-March is held at the Holiday Inn on Richmond Road. In 2010, organizers were commemorating the 55th anniversary of Gunsmoke, “the greatest of all TV westerns.” Old movies and television shows are screened, and the organizers invite actors for autograph sessions and panel discussions.
9. Women’S History Month
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: Colonial Williamsburg celebrates the contributions of 18th-century women throughout the month. Tours, programs and special presentations explore the various roles that our foremothers filled in the creation of a new country.
10. Art On The Lawn
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (757) 221-2700
Description: This annual festival, typically held on a Saturday in mid-April, celebrates the arts with live music, food, and a student artwork display. Art activities, games, and museum treasures help keep the kids entertained. The event is free and open to the public.
11. Garden Symposium
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (800) 603-0948
Description: Colonial Williamsburg’s three-day crash course on cultivating a green thumb has been held for 63 consecutive years. If you want to know how to make your garden grow, join horticulturists and gardening enthusiasts for a host of lectures, tours, and master classes. Special hotel rates are available at Colonial Williamsburg hotels.
12. Historic Garden Week
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (804) 644-7776, (757) 220-2486
Description: Sponsored by garden clubs throughout Virginia, this special week celebrating nature’s beauty (and the decorating skills of a number of homeowners) is held the third week in April. On Tuesday of that week, the Williamsburg Garden Club sponsors its garden week tour of both the gardens and interiors of four or five homes in the Williamsburg area. In addition, a walking garden tour of portions of the Colonial Williamsburg gardens is offered. Since the chairperson of the local event changes annually, your best bet for more information is to contact the state Historic Garden Week headquarters at the 804 number above or the Williamsburg chairwoman of the event at the 757 number. The Web site has many details, too.
13. Children’S Festival Of Friends
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (757) 926-1400
Description: A popular destination for families with young children, this one-day festival is held on a Saturday in early May. The fun includes entertainment with pint-size appeal, hands-on activities, games, and a variety of rides. Admission is free but expect to pay about a parking fee.
14. Confederate Attack On Fort Pocahontas At Wilson’S Wharf
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: In an effort to preserve this once-forgotten fort, reenactors meet for a two-day event to restage the Civil War battle that took place here on May 24, 1864. It was the first major land-naval clash between the U.S. Colored Troops and General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The weekend events include a living-history encampment, an evening lantern tour, military demonstrations, and two battle reenactments. Sutlers—salespeople dressed in period attire—offer plenty of wares for sale. Admission is $10 for adults and $8 for students per day, or $15 for adults and $10 for students for a two-day pass. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more.
15. Jamestown Day
City: Williamsburg, VA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (757) 253-4838, (888) 593-4682
Description: At Jamestown Day—an event sponsored jointly by Jamestown Settlement and Historic Jamestown—maritime demonstrations, military drills, and archaeology programs mark the 1607 anniversary of America’s first permanent English colony. Separate admission charges apply to Jamestown Settlement and Historic Jamestown. Free parking with a shuttle is available at both sites.