FESTIVALS & EVENTS

      The rest of the world gets four seasons, but here in Clear Lake we get a fifth season, festival season. Several cultural festivals are held in Houston during the year. In the fall, the Seabrook Music Festival in the first weekend of October has grown beyond a mere concert. It now features crafts, food booths, and amusements for all ages and a yearly theme. The In-The-Water Boat Show is an annual event with a nautical nature. The Wings Over Houston Air Show Festival is one of the most popular events in Texas. It's held every fall at Ellington Air Field, and showcases aircraft ranging from vintage to acrobatic to military, such as the Stealth Bomber. This is also the time of year to travel back to the 1500's with the Renaissance Festival's over 250 arts and crafts shops, wine tasting, wandering minstrels, sword fighters, and a smorgasbord of international foods. Also in October, the University of Houston-Clear Lake hosts the Bayou Ball, a black-tie gala gourmet dinner, silent auction and awards ceremony for its distinguished alumni, followed by the Bayou Chefs Night Out, where the finest Bay Area Chefs offer their very best to be savored.

     In December travel to Galveston for Dickens-On-The-Strand. This annual celebration turns the historic Strand commercial district into a scene from Victorian London. Also during the Christmas season, the Clear Lake area boats receive illuminating garlands. The annual Lighted Boat Parade makes the season merry and bright under the winter sky as it winds its way over the waters of Clear Lake. Back in Galveston are the parades and parties of the nation's second largest Mardi Gras celebration, held during the fun-filled two weeks preceding the beginning of the Christian Lenten season. When winter is fully here, we go country with the Go Texan Festival. It prepares our minds, renews our cowboy spirits and rallies the troops for the impending rodeo season. Rodeo season is always accompanied by barbecue season. If you are not happy with barbecues, the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce hosts an annual fund raising Epicurean Evening in February, where chief chefs from the areas finest restaurants show off their tastiest treats.

     Spring brings both ethnic celebrations and local traditional festivities. The Russian Festival celebrates Russian contributions to space flight as well as our own. Another cultural event held in spring is the Bay Area Greek Festival.

     As summer approaches, League City throws its annual Village Fair. The Lunar Rendezvous Ball is one of the jewels in Clear Lake's social crown, with its glitz, glamour and sedulous community service. In August we soar with the Ballunar Liftoff Festival, an annual event featuring hot air balloons, skydivers, hang gliders, model rockets, planes, and even a few real powered aircraft. Other events include the St. Mary's Bazaar, the Dickinson Pride Festival, Bay Day, and Pasadena's Rodeo and Strawberry Festival.

     The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, approaching its sixth decade in operation, draws record crowds of more that one million annually. Daily events feature a championship rodeo, the world's largest livestock exhibit, and the greatest names in entertainment. Trail riders from all over Texas, including the famous Salt Grass Trail Riders, enter Houston on horseback and celebrate the rodeo's opening with a downtown parade.