Annual Dickens Festival Held In Downtown Riverside
RIVERSIDE – Downtown Riverside will be transformed into a Victorian-era London marketplace today and tomorrow for the 17th annual Dickens Festival, a tribute to the life and times of the famed author.
The pedestrian mall on Main Street will be a hub of activity, teeming with characters straight out of Charles Dickens’ classics.
This year’s theme is “A Visit to the Old Curiosity Shop,” an homage to Dickens’ book “The Old Curiosity Shop.”
Theatrical performances, pageants, music, speeches, history demonstrations and children’s activities are planned.
The festival warm-up began last night with “Pickwick’s Pub Night,” an over-21 celebration at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium.
At 9:45 this morning, the Gordon Highlanders will mark the start of weekend fare by hoisting the Union Jack at Mission Inn Avenue and Lemon Street. The Old Curiosity Shop, displaying items of a “curious” nature, will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Mission Inn Avenue and Orange Street.
Merchants will sell food and wares reminiscent of an 1840s London bazaar throughout the day, interspersed with caroling and dancing, on the mall.
Organizers said today’s highlights include: a Queen’s Tea at 11 a.m. in the First Congregational Church, 3504 Mission Inn Ave.; a noon fashion show at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium, 3485 Mission Inn Ave.; a reenactment of Dickens’ 1867 visit to Baltimore, performed at 1:30 p.m. in Universalist Unitarian Church, 3657 Lemon St.; and at 7:30 p.m., Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball, with dancers stepping through a series of Quadrilles, waltzes and polkas.
At 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Dickens characters such as Ebenezer Scrooge, Samuel Pickwick and Jacob Marley will be speaking their minds at the storied Hyde Park Corner, Mission Inn Avenue and Orange Street. A children’s tea party is planned in “Oliver’s Alley,” on the mall, at 11:30 a.m. The “Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” will be explored at 2 p.m. in the Riverside Municipal Auditorium.
The festival will end with concluding remarks by Mr. Pickwick, on the Grant Family Stage, Main Street pedestrian mall, downtown.
