The Lilac Festival

Approximately a year and some months ago, no one ever thought the school year would be over so soon. From a freshman’s point of view, the year ahead looked very long, quite packed, and sometimes unpredictable. Classes. Assignments. Clubs. Friends. Foods. Places. Not-so-exciting moments. Meetings. Parties. Elections. Formals. Tours. The list goes on and on. Nevertheless, it has been a great freshman year.

Most exciting, the winter has bid us farewell, and it’s (almost) officially summer in Rochester! Every once in a while, the rain tries to prove its might, but it doesn’t do well enough to discredit the dominance of the sun. The trees swing back and forth in admiration of this beautiful weather of which they’ve been deprived for the past six or so months.

Well, just a little over a week ago, I was at Highland Park with a couple of friends, rising juniors at the U of R who are staying over for summer school, to experience my first-ever Lilac Festival. This festival, I am told, is well known amongst and celebrated by the Rochester community every year. If this is your first time hearing this, I know you badly want to ask the question, “What is the festival about?” Well, the answer is none but some elite group of flowers called lilacs. Of course, they must be elite to have an entire festival dedicated to them. Why can’t there be a Sunflower Festival or a Rose Festival or even a Tulip Festival? …Anyway, enough of my troubles.

Lilacs have unique aesthetic qualities. They are very colorful and attractive. More so, they give off a more-than-pleasant smell which makes you want to put them in your clothes. Such a fragrant smell can even revive one who has fallen into a three-day coma—I am just saying.

On a more serious note, the festival was amazing. There were other cool items on display and for sale: horse-drawn carriage rides, ice cream, popcorn, lemonade, and funnel cakes, amongst many others. Oh, and running after their owners were Chihuahuas and their older cousins, bull dogs, which have been richly blessed in body mass and size. Speaking of funnel cakes, I had my first-ever funnel cake at the Lilac Festival. It was delicious, though initially I was expecting a cake in the shape of a funnel. Eventually, my friends and I felt tired, so we came back to campus for a nap.

An awesome festival it was—the Lilac Festival.