
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 7, 1993                   TAG: 9305070362
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: WENDI GIBSON RICHERT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FESTIVAL IN THE PARK TO OFFER ALL THE STAPLES

Consider yourself warned: Those planning to fully indulge in all that the 1993 Festival in the Park has to offer should diet before Roanoke's annual event.

Not that food is all there is to tempt festival-goers this year. But Festival Executive Director Wendi Schultz advises there'll be more than enough festival feed to tip the scales by event's end.

May 27 through June 6 marks the 24th annual Festival in the Park, with its arts and crafts show, food court, hours of musical entertainment, sporting events (to counter the calories!) and children's activities.

The NationsBank Arts and Crafts Show and Sale will be held Memorial Day weekend, while the Annual Sidewalk Art Show will be June 5-6.

This year's concert lineup features, among the host of local and regional bands playing daily, The Marshall Tucker Band with J.D. Myers and the Hard Core Country Boys, and The Outlaws (May 28, Victory Stadium), and Marty Stuart with Blackwater and Great Plains (June 4, Victory Stadium).

For sports enthusiasts: The Moores Festival Softball Tournament (June 4-6), the IronKids Bread Triathlon (June 6), and the Saturn Festival Cup Bike Race and Roanoke Orthopaedic Center Hillclimb Time Trial Bike Race up Mill Mountain happen Memorial Day weekend.

Of course, the sports staples will be back: Dominion Bank-First Union Festival Classic 5K and 10K (June 5), and the 10th Annual Younglife Volleyball Tournament and the Crestar Festival Soccer Tournament begin May 29.

Children's entertainment comprises with 20 hands-on activities, storytellers, jugglers, musicians, puppeteers, a children's parade May 30, and Circus Days' Caravan Circus Encampment where kids can put on costumes and join the shows.

The festival's fund-raising gala, "Putting on the Ritz at Monte Carlo" (May 27), will feature big band tunes, mock gambling, art and jewelry displays, excerpts from Mill Mountain Theatre's "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe," and food (of course) from 16 area restaurants. Twenty-five bucks gets you into this black-tie formal affair.

Most of the festival, however, is free. And if it's not, it's at least cheap: A Festival in the Park button ($2 now at area outlets, $5 at Victory Stadium) will get you into the Victory Stadium concerts and performances of Mill Mountain Theatre's "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" (May 28-30).

A complete schedule will run in Extra closer to the festival. For more information, call 342-2640.

by CNB