By Robert Klimper |Staff Writer|
Downtown Upland, Calif. held the popular Lemon Festival on April 28 through 30th.
The Lemon Festival started back in 1997, making this the 20th time that the city of Upland had put on a the festival that started off as a small festival.
The Lemon Festival is a collaboration between Upland and The Learning Centers at Fairplex (TLC). TLC had its own area set up with volunteers handing out maps of the festival grounds.
During the Lemon Festival one could make note of the several local business located around the downtown area making use of the increased foot traffic.
“The Lemon Festival is just a celebration of Upland’s history, of its citrus groves and agriculture, and it is here to help support local businesses,” said Nakita Chand, a development associate with TLC.
The Lemon Festival was free to anyone wishing to walk around and see what several booths had set up. The streets of downtown offered live music at the Citrus Grove Stage.
The stage featured music from the likes of a Led Zeppelin tribute band, Groove Session, The Dogs and several other artists.
On Sunday, the stage featured blues musicians.
For thrillseekers, the Festival had a space put aside for a few carnival rides and games, like a small roller coaster and a Ferris wheel.
“The first year I volunteered I enjoyed it. It’s family oriented. You can see all walks of life here and you can bring your dogs here. It’s just
really nice,” said Carolina Rivas.
Rivas has volunteered at the Upland Lemon Festival for three years.
Though parking for the Festival was free, spots were limited.
Many parking spots were only available for about 2 to 3 hours.
Even then, due to the popularity of the event, one should have arrived early if they wanted to park close.
Anyone who wanted to spend a good chunk of their day at the Lemon Festival without having to worry about how long they had in their parking spot, could make use of some of the paid parking spots around the event.
“The city of Upland puts on the festival but [the Learning Center] also helps out with information and helping people get around at the festival,” said Ana Rivas, a volunteer from the Learning Center who was handing out maps to the Lemon Festival.
Sponsorships from Charlie’s Beer Company, Ford of Upland, Welk Resorts, Solarcity, Sleep Number, Shock
Top, Metro Nissan Montclair, and SoCalGas helped to make this year’s Lemon Festival possible.
The three-day event arrived as quickly as it concluded.
Anyone interested can participate next year.
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