Festival of Leaves dodges some Weather and Power bullets for a Successful 2023 Fall Leaf-Season Kickoff

The 2023 Festival of Leaves in the Town of Front Royal’s Historic Downtown Business District managed to skirt a more lengthy rain weather forecast and early-morning power outage that accompanied the rain that did come in those early-morning vendor set-up hours to have a successful homage to the Autumn leaf changing season. Skies cleared not long after the sun rose, and the power came back on, drawing an enthusiastic crowd throughout the day to vendor offerings and to view downtown Front Royal’s Fall seasonal backdrop, as many of the photos below will show.

Royal Examiner sat down with “Downtown Front Royal” festival organizers Rick Novak, Sue Laurence, and Michael Whitlow mid-afternoon between festival staffing assignments to get a perspective on the day’s event.

From left, festival staff Sue Laurence, Michael Whitlow, and Rick Novak on the job, pause for the Royal Examiner camera, and a brief interview on how things were going despite some early adversity. Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini

“It got off to a great start last night with the Dancing Downtown. I think we probably had between 1,500 and 2,000 people here last night off and on,” Novak observed of the festival’s kickoff, Friday, October 13th pre-Festival event. “More than we had last year,” Whitlow added, noting of the featured musical performer to jump-start that dancing, “Kashmir was amazing.”

But refocusing on Saturday’s festival, Novak noted the rain-accompanied power outage that morning, “There were some tense moments for some folks that were trying to make coffee and beans … but we persevered. And this is an amazing crowd today,” he noted in the wake of nearly a week of rain-throughout-the-day forecasts. “So, I mean Front Royal and the Festival of the Leaves is blessed, and we turned it into a great day with the help of our customers who showed up.”

“Even with the rain forecast yesterday, we had people calling and asking to set up,” Laurence said of some intrepid vendors.

The Village Commons ‘Road’ may be closed to vehicular traffic, but it was open to pedestrian traffic, which was steady throughout, perusing vendor choices in food, beverages, arts & crafts, and information on a variety of things Fall and otherwise related.

“Our modest goal was 150, our shoot for the stars goal was 175, but we exceeded that,” Novak said of the 190 vendors who were contracted, adding that some of those did not end up making it due to the forecast and early morning rains. “So, congrats to Arlene and Sue, who did a phenomenal job,” Novak said of the vendor recruiting staff.

“Everyone did – you did a great job with sponsoring, getting sponsors, it was just everyone,” Whitlow said with a nod to Novak’s pre-festival efforts as well. That led Novak to continue to pass the organizational credit around with additional nods to Tom Eschelman and Lizzie Lewis, the latter the Town’s new tourism director. And speaking of tourism, as Dancing Downtown was a kickoff for the the Festival of Leaves, the Festival of Leaves is the kickoff to the heart of the Autumn leaf-changing season and its draw as a tourist attraction to this community inside and outside the town limits. Laurence noted a recent, almost pre-festival “overnight” spreading of the Fall leaf-changing color blanket in the Village Commons/Gazebo area — again, the festival seemed blessed. As it did once again several hours later when the rains that stopped around 8 a.m. returned in an aggressive and torrential way at 6:40 p.m., about 40 minutes after the festivals’ close and vendor breakdowns.

From any perspective, it was a beautiful Fall day for the Festival of Leaves in Historic Downtown Front Royal, sliced between the rain that ended around 8 a.m. and the torrential downpour that returned at about 6:40 p.m.

And speaking of good jobs, the festival organizers also gave a nod to some participating local organizations like Randolph-Macon Academy’s color guard, the Sons of the American Revolution, as well as youth volunteers through various sources. It was also noted that a number of scheduled bands were canceled due to the weather forecasts and the dangers of plugging in electronic equipment in the rain. However, a DJ was there, and some musical acts were performed that could make it with the DJ’s equipment.

The Festival of Leaves information booth at the East Main/Chester Street heart of Historic Downtown Front Royal. Below, left to right, Kelsey, Brook, Rebecca, and Johnny smile for the camera between Information Booth paraphernalia sales and question answering.

Festival character alert: Michael Hasty, left, who plugged in and offered some live musical entertainment in place of canceled bands, and C&C Frozen Treats proprietor Will Huck on the move.

Below are some additional perspectives on the Oct. 14, 2023, Festival of Leaves:

A karate club display offered passersby a trial shot and perhaps some aggression sublimation. Ouch, I’ll bet that hurt. Below, ‘It is awful pretty out here, but I’m tired. Can we go home now?’ one festival-goer seemed to be thinking.

The new Chester Street Tavern sign was installed just prior to the festival. And while the Tavern is not scheduled to open for about a month, proprietor Jim Justice, below, took the opportunity to give tours of the Tavern-renovation-in-progress at the historic 12 Chester St. Mullen-Trout house location to festival goers, who also had the opportunity to wish Justice a happy birthday.

The views up E. Main St. (west) down E. Main St. (east), and up Chester St. (north)

Here are a few miscellaneous shots of festival fun for a wrap-up: Something getting smoked; kids find rings of various sizes to have fun with …

Is that a hula hoop competition gaining momentum? – It must be with Molly, the Hula Hoop Fairy, on the scene.