Cypress : 20,000 Expected at Community Festival

More than 20,000 people are expected to turn out Saturday for the 13th annual Cypress Community Festival.

The result of eight months of planning and more than 3,000 volunteer hours, the festival will feature five-kilometer and 10-kilometer runs, a chili cook-off, children’s rides, food booths, three entertainment stages and arts and crafts.

“It’s our present to the city,” said Jewell Tolkin, chairwoman of the Cypress Community Festival Assn., which organizes the event.

The event will be at Brethren Christian High School at the corner of Orange Avenue and Grindlay Street. Admission is free.

Some of the performers at the festival include barbershop quartets, square-dancers, country line-dancers and a variety of musical acts.

People wishing to participate in the 5-K and 10-K runs and two-mile stroll can enter up until 7 a.m. Saturday.

The festival originally was intended to mark the city’s 25th anniversary in 1981. But the event was so popular, it became an annual tradition.

“We thought it would be nice to have a dance, a few booths and games to commemorate the occasion,” said Alice Rogers, a member of the 1981 festival planning committee. “We had no idea of what we were starting.”

Following tradition, the festival committee is again relying on a cow to help promote the event. Much of Cypress used to be dairy land.

The Cypress Community Festival Assn., a nonprofit corporation, is organizing this year’s event in conjunction with the Cypress Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club and the city.

For information, call (714) 229-6780.