Lilacs and a lax environment

Lilacs and a lax environment

Live music, art, vendors, food, and lilacs; these are just a few of the many things that happen at Rochester New Yorks annual Lilac Festival.

            This flora spring tradition began in 1898 when around 3,000 Rochesterians gathered at Highland Park (where the festival is still located today) one Sunday in early May to see the stunning purple and pink lilacs that sprinkle the hills of the park. The park has more than 1,200 different bushes and about 500 different varieties of Lilacs. There is also a large tulip bed and wild flowers that grow throughout the massive hill covered park. The Rochester lilac fest is largest celebration of its kind in North America, the Lilac Festival brings visitors from all over, creating an exotic spectacle of languages, customs, colors, an endless array of international foods and an extensive variety of musical entertain-ment.  Over the course of the last twenty years, more and more people have gathered to enjoy the scent and beauty of the early spring blooming flowers.

            Since then Rochester has established it as an official tradition. During the first or second week of May over 500,000 people gather and disperse throughout the hills and fields of Highland Park in celebration of spring, the season of rebirth.

Bands play live on the main stage as Rochesterians run around and dance to the music that blares throughout the neighborhood. Over twenty different food vendors with anything you can imagine from pizza, to Greek food, to Chinese food, to fried dough, line the sidewalks and pathways as they fill the air with rich and culturally diverse scents, each representing Rochester’s culture rich environment.

“With the lilacs ready to burst with color and fragrance, food from around the world, and great music, this year's festival is guaranteed to arouse the senses.”

The Rochester Lilac Festival is something that many people look forward to every spring. According to RocWikki.com the Lilac Festival was voted “best festival” in the city’s newspaper's ‘Best Of' Awards in 2008 and 2009. It’s a real blast and a great opportunity to get out and meet some of your the fellow members of the community.