This Land, Your Land

The premier Independence Day celebration in the Triangle, the Festival for the Eno, is a fundraiser for the Eno River Association and its mission to preserve the Eno River basin. But mostly, it's a good time - with more than 80 performers on four stages, 85 arts and crafts vendors, and food that includes homemade ice cream. There's also canoe and kayak demos and rentals, an instrument museum, reptiles and amphibians, biodiesel workshops, kids' activities, backyard chickens, historical tours, dance workshops, a working grist mill, and wading in the Eno River.

The festival annually raises thousand of dollars - $100,000 in one year - that go toward land acquisition and protection along the Eno, including land that has been added to Eno River State Park.

The 30th annual festival runs 10 a.m to 6 p.m. today and Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at West Point on the Eno, a Durham City Park. Tickets are $15 per day or $35 for a three-day pass. Parking is at Durham County Stadium on Duke Street, where buses will take you to the festival. Here's a map.

In addition to the festival, West Point on the Eno has about five miles of trails that lead along the river and through rocky terrain with granite bluffs often covered with mountain laurel, rhododendron, and partridge berry.