HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — For the first time in 40 years, the Lebanese Food Festival in Henrico's West End is changing its dates. The $42 million Sadler Road re-alignment and improvement project is the reason for the change.
The festival, which usually takes place the weekend after Mother's Day, will now be held on Sept. 11, 12, and 13. The ongoing construction has eliminated easy access to St. Anthony’s Church, where the event is traditionally hosted.
"We have just tried every possible solution," Sandra Joseph Brown, a spokesperson for the Lebanese Food Festival, said. "The best possible solution this year is to change the date... because of everything that you see around me."
The project aims to ease congestion and widen Sadler Road to four lanes, but Brown said the roadwork has created a mess for drivers.
"All you need to do is attempt to come in on Nuckols Road or Sadler Road off Broad Street and it is a jigsaw puzzle and this whole area is completely shut down," Brown said.
The festival is one of the region's largest, drawing massive crowds each year.
"We get over 40,000 people to this event so it’s not a little festival," Brown said.
Traffic has always been an issue for the festival, even before the construction started.
"When I say traffic was backed up from here to Nuckols Road on that end and from Broad Street on the other end to come in because there were only two entrances in and out," she said. "Presently there is no entrance so we had to change the date."
Brown is announcing the four-month delay now because attendees often schedule their lives around the event. Despite the date change, the festival will remain at its historic location.
"We are nervous about [the new dates], but very comfortable that the community will embrace us then just like they have embraced us now we," she said. "We just want to make sure that people put the date on the calendar."
Brown has been in contact with Henrico County. Officials guaranteed this section of the road project will be complete in time for the festival's new dates in September.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky | Facebook | Instagram | X | Threads | TikTok | YouTube
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. To learn more about how we use AI in our newsroom, click here.
