Live music, food stands and local business displays made up Chula Vista’s 23rd annual Lemon Festival on Sunday, Aug. 4.
Third Avenue Village’s lemon-themed event is a yearly tradition to bring local Chula Vista businesses and residents together through entertainment and community bonding.
With 50,000 people in attendance at Sunday’s event, Kelly Lannom, event manager for Third Avenue Village, said the festival has grown significantly in the past two decades, with only 20,000 in attendance its first year.
“People enjoy attending [Lemon Festival] for a sense of community,” Lannom said.
“Everyone loves this community and being involved in something.”
Although the festival revolves around the theme of lemons, paying homage to Chula Vista’s historic title of “Lemon Capital of the World,” Lannom says the event goes beyond the lemons.
“Lemon Festival is celebrating the heritage of Chula Vista,” Lannom said. “It gets our community together and brings new people into the area.”
This sentiment of community-building was felt by both attendees and vendors on Sunday as well.
For Mary Caraway, her first time attending the festival proved to be a success, as dozens of attendees approached her and her dog Bailey, who were both decked out in lemon attire for a lemon zest costume contest.
“We only walk a few steps and everyone wants to take a picture of us,” Caraway said. “I really like [the festival] – all of the businesses, the vendors, the costume contest and the food.”
For Patty Stevens, a Chula Vista resident who attends the Lemon Festival every year, she says the event is a way for herself and her family and friends to connect with their fellow community members.
“We love giving back to the community,” Lannom said. “We always [visit] anyone who has local businesses here.”
Stevens also says the friendliness of the attendees and diversity of people is another reason why she annually attends the festival and will continue to do so.
This notion also rang true for Elizabeth Rodriguez, a local vendor at the festival for her family-run business Chicanista Boutique, which sells traditional Mexican regalia and gives workshops on how to create traditional pieces.
Although it was her first time at the festival, Rodriguez says she was pleased with the atmosphere of community members coming together.
“The people are so friendly and the environment is so positive – the conversations we’ve had with the residents [have been] wonderful,” Rodriguez said. “Chula Vista is a hidden gem, so we’re going to be coming here more often.”
Rodriguez also says she appreciates how the organizers of Lemon Festival allow smaller, local businesses a slot at the event in addition to larger corporations.
“Sometimes when festivals get really big, the scales tip and it tends to be a majority of big companies,” Rodriguez said. “Lemon Festival started as a little thing, so hopefully they still provide a platform as they grow to allow tiny business owners to grow too.”
Overall, attendees of the event expressed positive feedback to the event and its efforts to bond Chula Vista residents.
Matthew Hemingway, a volunteer for men’s recovery home South Bay Pioneers and who walked up and down the event dressed as a lemon, finds events like Lemon Festival an important way to unite the community, especially in the wake of last weekend’s tragedies.
“It’s good to have events like these,” Hemingway said. “The community got together, it’s good for local businesses and it’s a beautiful day in San Diego.”
