New York, NY (Top40 Charts) From peaches to tomatoes, a 43 mile yard sale, a dog fest to a contemporary classical music festival, Go Blue Ridge Travel has picked the top Shenandoah Valley events for the dog days of summer. Enjoy seeing the valley thru the eyes of a child and her friend, Bucket.
Find Out What is Fun for Kids in the Shenandoah Valley
Celebrate Peaches, Country Life, and Classical
Music - only a Shenandoah Valley Experience
Wow the summer is about to end and Bucket of the Kids Trail has been busy with her friends Shenny and Ridge in June and July having lots of fun. With August coming in, it was impossible to pick just five or six favorites, so here are Go Blue Ridge Travel top choices. The events are broken down by food happenings, festivals and fairs, and music events.
Great Country Farm- First Annual Peachy Fuzzy Festival : "Celebrate
Everything Peach with Picking, Peach Wine Pairing & Peach Craft Beer"
Kicking the first weekend of August off, will be a Peach Fuzztival. Celebrate peach picking season and enjoy the fruit in great food and drink at this first full collaboration between Bluemont Vineyard, Dirt Farm Brewing and Great Country Farms, all located in Bluemont, VA. The Zurschmeide family is a multi- generational farm complex including a agritourism family farm, winery, and brewery.
Covering an entire weekend from July 31 to August 2nd, get the whole family involved in the peach fun with a peach eating contest, peach pit spitting contest and family water games starting at 1pm at Great Country Farms. Pick one's own peaches and then enjoy peach slushies, peach pies, peach melba bread, peach ice cream and peach pork BBQ sauce in the Roosteraunt Concession Stand. Then visit Bluemont Vineyard to enjoy the fermented fruit in Bluemont's summer classic wine~ The Peach or a Stone Fruitarita. Newly opened Dirt Farm Brewing (DFB) is developing it's Peach Beer recipe and will release Dirt Farm's 2nd summer seasonal brew, made with GCF fresh peaches.
Mackintosh Fruit Farm - Wrap the first weekend of August 1st with a dinner on the Farm. Enjoy an outdoor setting with a meal featuring all fresh ingredients from the farm except for the Salmon. Dinner begins at 7 pm and reservations are required. Then on August 8th, it is Mackintosh's annual Peach Fest. This is a simple festival where one can listen to music, some craft vendors, children enjoying the playground, and of course peaches to be picked. Great time for the family. This is followed by
Honey Bee Day on August 15th. A unique festival celebrating this little creature that contributes so much to the ecosystem.
Route 11 Crawl - A unique event, plan to shop till one drops at over 43 miles of yard sales and business sales along The Old Valley Pike on August 9th. The crawl begins in Stephens City and following the old Route 11 turnpike to New Market, Virginia. Not really for kids, plan to leave the young ones with their friends having fun at the pool. There are sidewalk sales, yard sales, antiques, food, wine, and much more.
Lucketts Fair — A must for all generations of the family, Lucketts Fair is the epitome of country living celebrating 43 years. Leaving Leesburg and driving on historic Route 15 north, one comes to a small community that centers its life around the Community Center. "Lucketts Fair gives you a glimpse of the past agricultural days and the present," said Mary Gustafson, Day
Dream Design. Capturing the essence of living in the country, Lucketts offers bluegrass bands, horse drawn wagon rides, and sheep herding demonstrations. There are three contests locals can sign up for:
A Best Fruit Pie Contest
Who can Grow the Largest Tomato and Zucchini
Best Dressed Vegetable (for kids only).
Plus local flavor food and homemade hand churned ice cream. The dates are August 15 and 16th from 9 - 5 pm.
Shepherdstown Dog Fest - Celebrating the dog days of summer, the 3rd Annual Dog Fest on August 15th and 16th in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Dog Fest is an event perfect for canine owners. There are even two pet friendly hotels welcoming the creatures: the Comfort Inn and Hillbrook Inn. Dog Fest will begin right where last summer's inaugural celebration left off, with two days chock full of dog-related activities, including a border collie sheep-herding demonstration, blessing of the dogs, exhibitions, a rare breed parade, a dog show, and more.
Celebrating
Music in the Valley - from country to bluegrass to contemporary classical
Shenandoah Jamboree- The Valley's premier country entertainment series of shows is celebrating its 3rd season. With three dates left, the next event is on August 1 at 7 PM for some great country music close to home at the Yellow Barn at Shenandoah Caverns.
Shenandoah Valley
Music Festival - the longest running outdoor music festival in the mid-Atlantic, the Unied States Air Force
Strings perform on August 6th.
Staunton
Music Festival - starting August 14th and ending August 23rd, this 10 day festival steps out of the box in being unique offering the listeners a rare opportunity to listen to fine musicians from around
Europe and the United States come together. SMF is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the most sought-after summer music experiences on the East Coast.
County Fairs - through out the Shenandoah Valley, August begins the season for local county fairs. Three leading fairs are Virginia's Rockingham County on August 17th thru the 22nd, Shenandoah County on August 28th through
September 5th and West Virginia's Jefferson County on August 16th through the 22nd. Combining both food, country living, and live music, these fairs are a great way to enjoy the valley.
Pick a weekend road trip around these top family and adult friendly events. Check out where to stay from top camping sites as well as luxury accommodations. It is the diversity of budget that makes Virginia and West Virginia mountain regions so attractive to all ages!
About GoBlueRidgeTravel.com
Launched in December 2011, Go Blue Ridge Travel (GoBRT) is an e-commerce marketing company using digital internet channels to both create a travel ecosystem community. GoBRT's mission is to create a marketing alliance available to businesses in the travel-planning, retail shopping, dining, and hospitality industries for the northern Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley of VA, WV, and MD thru a website and social media platform reaching both locals and tourists.
Founded and owned by Nancy Craun who grew up in the area and has 30 years of experience in the event planning, restaurant, hotel, and marketing arenas. GoBRT covers 160 plus mile radius of the Interstate 81 Corridor spanning the states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland.
GoBRT's goal is to help others discover the beauty of the Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley and check something off one's bucket list. In the past two years, Go Blue Ridge Travel has received two grants from Virginia Tourism to develop the Shenandoah Valley Kids Trail and brand its mascot "
Bucket".
