Riverdale Park Day 2011 Sees Changes, Additions

While bluegrass group Rodeo Motel plays on the main stage at this Saturday, the younger crowd will be cheering on the girl band Freecious, performing current and classic hits. 

It’s the first time the festival has had two stages. And that’s just one of the changes you’ll see on Saturday.

The festival begins at noon at Riverside Park, 5801 Riverside Drive, and will end around 5 p.m. Mayor Vernon Archer called this Riverdale Park’s “single biggest event of the year.”

The town’s annual celebration takes place on the first Saturday of October and typically boasts an assortment of food, entertainment, arts and crafts, business vendors, informational booths, games and more. 

Nova Johns, the event coordinator, said this year there will be two stages, an addition to previous Riverdale Park Day events. The main stage will host five performers, ranging from blues group Rick Franklin and Friends to Riverdale Park’s own Grupo Faraones Musicalo, performing traditional Mexican and regional covers.

The second stage will be geared toward Riverdale Park youth and will feature five young local entertainment groups, including the award-winning and Structures, a local dance group, Johns said.

“This year, we had an increase in sponsors and vendor participation, and we collect a fee with registration, which allowed for us to do more then we have done in the past,” she said. “We had a larger budget, so we were able to pull some additional performers and get the second stage for younger residents.” 

In addition to these performers, you can expect to see plenty of arts and crafts vendors as well as face painting, pony rides, a pie-eating contest and tug of war. 

Johns, who has coordinated the event for two years, says she spent six months planning it and tried “to create a fair-like atmosphere that pulls everybody together to just hang out and take time to focus on family, friends and having fun.” 

Archer added, “My first few years as mayor I thought I needed to be intimately involved in planning, but Nova and her committee have done such a great job the past few years; it’s extremely well-executed.” 

Archer said he is excited about the growth and additions to this year’s festival, including more food vendors.

The will, as always, be serving hot dogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers, nachos and cheese, veggie sandwiches and barbeque chicken sandwiches. Other vendors include Rita’s Italian Ice, Mister Softee and Julie’s Delicious Punch, featuring homemade punch and funnel cakes.

Johns said she is looking forward to performances by the Andy Poxon Band, featuring 17-year-old guitarist, singer and songwriter Andy Poxon, as well as the Prince George’s County Bagpipe Band, which will be parading from 3 to 4 p.m.

Riverdale Park Day attracts at least 500 people, Archer said, and last year, there were around 900. Johns hopes to top that on Saturday. 

Parking will be available at Riverdale Elementary School, as well as some additional limited parking on Taylor Road.