Parking, people and more: Here’s what to expect for Scrumptious festival this weekend

Williamsburg’s first Scrumptious festival is just around the corner — starting Thursday — and downtown is preparing for an influx of guests.

Steve Rose, Scrumptious organizer and founder and president of CultureFix, said the lineup of events is all set in stone — the tent just needs to be erected on North Boundary Street and festival activities set up.

Scrumptious pulls several annual Williamsburg events scheduled for this weekend into one package, including the Williamsburg 56th Annual Art on the Square, Foodapalooza: A Festival of Taste and the Williamsburg Craft Beer Festival.

To add to the weekend, Scrumptious also features the Shark Tank Virginia at the Stryker Center, Sunday Farmers Market, Live on the Green free community concert and more.

“The concept was to take events that are already happening and build around that,” Rose said. “We’re all trying to work together on the same weekend.”

Logistics

For those traveling in downtown Williamsburg, North Boundary Street will be closed to through traffic from Wednesday until Monday around noon, Rose said.

Rose, who also owns Williamsburg Event Rentals, will erect a tent on the street this year, instead of the adjacent grassy area by the Stryker Center where the beer festival was previously hosted.

The beer festival will be bigger this year, spanning both sides of North Boundary Street.

Rose said festival attendees are encouraged to park in the Prince George Parking Garage. There is no particular overflow parking area, but there are numerous smaller lots and on-street parking in the area.

Guests can exit the parking garage through the back and be two blocks away from the festival location, Rose said.

The Stryker Center parking lot will be reserved for the Shark Tank Virginia event and library attendees, Rose said, so festival attendees should not plan to park in that lot.

Bigger

Last year, the Williamsburg Craft Beer Festival was sold out at around 1,300 people.

This year, the beer festival will be bigger because it spans a larger area, Rose said.

“There was potential for something bigger for them,” Rose said of the beer festival.

There could be around 1,800 people attending the craft beer festival this year, Rose said.

Because of the influx of guests, Scrumtious organizers have had “multiple” meetings with Williamsburg Police and the Williamsburg Fire Department to organize public safety measures, including having extra duty officers in attendance.

Besides the beer festival, Rose said festival attendees can get more information about various weekend events and offerings on the Scrumptious website.

There is also a contact form for people to fill out if they have questions.

With everything in place, event organizers are just hoping for good weather.

“For the most part it’s looking like a beautiful weekend,” Rose said.

Here’s the schedule of events: