Apple Blossom Festival – 2011…

I know, I know…this is a bit late…ok, more than a bit, but please indulge me. Other work projects and some personal issues have required extra attention over the last 8 weeks or so.

Now, we have lived in Winchester for about 6 years now and have never really, fully experienced The Bloom before this year. I was contacted by a member of the committee and asked to be one of a handful of photographers that they bring in each year to cover the various events and activities involved in Apple Blossom. Well, now I have been well and truly immersed in The Bloom. Wow, what a week!

My week started off with an event that my wife specifically requested that I ask to cover, Pumps & Pearls at the George Washington Hotel, on Monday evening. This was quite an experience with a crowd of about 99% women, many who had personally, and in some cases painstakingly, decorated their shoes to compete in the Shoe Contest at the end of the evening.

From there we covered the Breakfast Walk on Thursday, which due to the weather became just breakfast, but was fun none the less. Thursday night brought us to Disco Fever. This was an experience with many people dressing up in their finest disco era apparel, to include a KISS – Gene Simmons look-a-like and a great ’70s band from Virginia Beach, The Right On Band.

Friday we covered The Bloomers Luncheon at the Sprint Tent. This was another event that was virtually all women…and they were having fun. One of the event sponsors, Handyman Connection, had 4 young men dressed in hard hats and company t-shirts walking around as servers. It was like a toned down version of Chippendales! Friday evening we covered both the Fire Fighters Parade and The Queen’s Ball at Shenandoah University.

Saturday brought us a few memorable characters at the 10K Run. We later covered the Grand Feature Parade and The Oldies Rock-n-Roll dance with Patsy Cline and Elvis tribute artists, the original line-up of The Rhondels and another KISS – Gene Simmons look-a-like.

Our final assignment was to cover The Bluegrass Concert at the Sprint Tent on Sunday.

We had a great time, met some great people and got fully immersed in The Bloom. If you have never been, I suggest you think about taking part in at least some of the events one year soon. In all, we covered 10 different events and took well over 4,000 photos! I have uploaded a half dozen or so from each event, we hope you enjoy them. If you or someone you know was at any of these events, you just might find yourself, or them, in one of these photos.