Greetings fellow Orangeians!

By Jeff Curtis, Director Orange Downtown Alliance | Posted: Saturday, July 11, 2009

This may be one of the best times of the year to live in and around Orange. It seems like everything is getting up speed: you can almost hear the trees soaking up the sunshine and you can practically watch the growth of our tomatoes and zinnias. This amazing early summer weather and the national trend to vacation closer to home has done wonders for bringing visitors to our area. The evidence of this is apparent in the thousands of visitors, the local festivals, the historic sites and the agricultural centers have been attracting to the area.

And speaking of festivals: This month we'll be presenting our first-ever, one-of-a-kind, family street festival. You've been hearing and reading about it and all of a sudden it'll be here! Our Bike Virginia Street Festival! It's going to be one to remember: it's free, there'll be a full array of every type of food you'd want, there's a beer and wine garden, a clown with balloons for the kids, and music! The first band, Odd Legged Jenny will play the dimensional "music of wanderers, and varied approaches to Irish, Old Time and gypsy music" and our follow-up band, Blues Farm will gear up the evening with a power house of crankin funky blues and roots rock!

So enjoy the rest of this newsletter. In it we proudly and thankfully introduce a couple of community leaders who persistently add to the well-being of our town. There's also a narrative of our three unique cultural restaurants as well as our monthly available property listing and contact information.