Apple Chill Street Festival
Every spring the town of Chapel Hill closes it's streets to traffic and puts on the Apple Chill Street Fair. The event attracts hundreds of vendors and organizations and thousands of people. Once or twice there were close to one hundred thousand people at Apple Chill. The event has been under scrutiny in the last few years for a couple of reasons. One is that the sheer size of the crowd is stretches the resources of the town. Another reason is that people felt the even was becoming less about local crafts and more about food vendors from out of town. The main reason is the event within (or without) the event known as After-Chill when thousands of young, mostly black men from all over the state come to town in souped-up cars and brightly colored motorcycles cruising the streets in a parade that lasts into the evening. Personally, I am for After-Chill though I think it would be better not as a black event but for whites, hispanics and anybody else with an interest in cars and motorcycles. Maybe do it another day altogether and use all of Franklin street instead of just the part unused by Apple Chill.
Anyway these are some photos from Apple Chill. I would have had more from After-Chill except this year both events fell on Orthodox Easter and I had leave early to go to lamb roast with the Duke Hellenic Students. But Apple Chill, After-Chill and Greek Easter can't fall on the same Sunday every year.
