Altavista will see a taste of Uncle Billy’s Day later this month when English Park will be the site of the Altavista Carnival. Organized by the Altavista Chamber of Commerce, it is planned as a “back to school” celebration for the entire city.
“This is the same type of carnival that we would normally support during Uncle Billy’s Day,” said Brandi Shirlen, interim executive director of the Altavista Chamber of Commerce. “Since it’s going to be in August, we’re going to bring it back as a ‘Back to School’ kind of event;’ bringing kids back (for some) small-town fun.”
‘Small Town Fun’ will be provided by Fun Time Amusements, the Danville-based company responsible for providing Uncle Billy’s Day carnival rides and attractions. Chris Colbert, owner and president of Fun Time, said their return to Altavista will be a scaled-down version of the beloved June festival.
“It’s just Friday and Saturday, just like Uncle Billy’s Day would be, except it won’t be associated with vendors, a concert, fireworks and all that,” Colbert said. “(It’s) just giving everybody a chance to come out and do something since we’re already two years without Uncle Billy’s Day”
Colbert noted that while the carnival won’t reach the same number of rides as Uncle Billy’s Day — which typically features 14 or 15 rides — there will be a variety of options to choose from.
“We’ll have things for all ages – some bigger attractions, some family rides, some smaller kids’ rides so we can cover all age groups,” he said. “We’re probably looking to do about ten trips, the way it’s shaping up.”
Those trips have yet to be determined. Beyond the rides, Colbert said more traditional carnival fare will be offered.
“We’ll have rides, we’ll have games and we’ll have carnival food,” he said. “Cotton candy, funnel cakes, fried Oreos, snow, all the things people usually look for when they come to a carnival.”
The carnival will last two days. On Friday, August 19, it will be open from 6:00 p.m., while on Saturday, August 20, it will be open from 3:00 p.m.
Friday’s walk will coincide with another back-to-school event: a block party hosted by Altavista on Track and the Staunton River Memorial Library set from 4 to 7 p.m.
“We’re just overlapping that last hour, so we can be team players and promote each other,” Shirlen said. “They’ll have food trucks, outside games, a DJ, Balloon Dude Travis, a book fair and more.”
Entrance to the carnival is free, although to go on a ride, participants will need either three to 10 tickets – depending on the ride. Tickets will be available for sale at the carnival and are $1 per ticket, $20 for 24 tickets or $50 for 65 tickets.
A $20 all-you-can-ride bar will also be available, but for Friday night use only.
“For Uncle Billy’s Day, we do an armband on Saturday morning and then go back to tickets in the afternoon,” Colbert said. “This time, since we’re doing a little bit of a different format, we’re just going to do the Friday night strip and it’s just going to be the all-day ticket on Saturday.”
Planning for the event began earlier this year, when the third weekend in August was freed up for Fun Time.
“We had it open this weekend a few months ago and I approached (the Chamber),” Colbert said. “We’ve been working with the Chamber to try to do everything we can to make it happen.”
That was long before the 2023 edition of Uncle Billy’s Day – dubbed Uncle Billy’s Reunion by organizers T & C Promotions – had been publicly announced and Shirlen, “wanted to bring something family-oriented to the city”.
Moving forward, Colbert and Fun Time are working with T & C Promotions to bring Carnival back to the city on the first weekend of June next year.
“We’re setting our sights on getting Uncle Billy’s Day back to where it was for next year,” Colbert said.
So far, Shirlen says the response to this month’s carnival has been overwhelmingly positive.
“We’re really excited to bring this to families. As soon as it was posted on Facebook, it started getting a lot of shares and everyone seems to be supporting it,” Shirlen said. “Hopefully we’ll have good weather and a lot of people will come out and support it so that keep doing things like this. We need to have support and volunteers to make events like this happen.”
