Bel Air Downtown Alliance’s 10th Annual Chocolate & Candy Festival Returns March 5

From the Bel Air Downtown Alliance:

On Saturday, March 5, 2011, the Bel Air Downtown Alliance will be celebrating their 10th Annual Chocolate & Candy Festival at the Bel Air Reckord Armory in Downtown Bel Air from 10:00am to 3:00pm. Admission for the event is just $5.00 and children under age 6 are FREE. Each paid admission will receive three tickets allowing them to sample from our chocolatiers, candy makers, and sweet treat merchants. The year, the Bel Air Downtown Alliance is pleased to announce that Moore’s Candies, Wockenfuss Candies, Bel Air Bakery, Stephanie’s Sweets, The Flavor Cupcakery, Bomboy’s Home Made Candy, Bel Air Kettle Corn, Dove Chocolate Discoveries, Broom’s Bloom Dairy, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Mary Sue Candies, Shamrock Coffee, Tastefully Simple, Rita’s Italian Ice in Forest Hill, and Coffee Coffee will all be in attendance with their delicious and decadent treats as samples and available for purchase. In addition, there will be a Children’s Activity Area, sponsored by the Bel Air Athletic Club and My Gym of Bel Air, with chocolate and candy themed activities for the kids, as well as, the 2nd Annual Downtown Bel Air Scavenger Hunt designed to send you out on an exploration of the local shops and boutiques to find candy and prizes.

“To celebrate our 10th Anniversary, we really wanted to make this year’s festival all about chocolate and candy,” reported Scott T. Walker, Executive Director of the Bel Air Downtown Alliance. “Bel Air and Harford County have so many wonderful chocolate and candy makers, like Moore’s, Wockenfuss, and Bomboy’s, but we also have great merchants that offer the chocolate and candy ‘experience’ with other sweet treats. That’s why we made it our mission to have Bel Air Bakery, Flavor Cupcakery, Stephanie’s Sweets, Broom’s Bloom, Bruster’s, Shamrock Coffee, Coffee Coffee, and others like them involved at this year’s festival,” Mr. Walker added. “This is a local event and we wanted to include as many of the local chocolate, candy, and sweet treat merchants as possible. However, it’s still all about chocolate and candy, so we also wanted to give everyone as much ‘bang for their buck’ as possible. We think the addition of some non-local merchants will do that and we are very excited that Mary Sue Candies, from Baltimore, MD, will be joining us this year,” he concluded.

The Bel Air Downtown Alliance marked the 10th Anniversary of this family-friendly event with a logo design contest that was open to everyone of all ages. They received more than a dozen logo submissions from local designers, as well as, another two dozen logo submissions from students at the local middle and high schools. They are pleased to announce that the design submitted by Shirl Fitzpatrick from Bel Air, MD was selected as the new logo for the Chocolate & Candy Festival. Ms. Fitzpatrick will receive a $150.00 cash prize, as well as, a selection of other prizes from local merchants in Downtown Bel Air. Dawn DeVoe from Bel Air, MD was the first runner up and Melinda Funk from Aberdeen, MD was the second runner up. All of the artists and designers will be invited to the Chocolate & Candy Festival for an awards presentation and all of the designs will be on display. In addition, since so many submissions were received from local students, there will also be a fan-voted logo design contest at the Chocolate & Candy Festival with all of the attendees invited to vote for their favorite design created by the local students. The winner of that contest will be announced at 2:00pm at the Chocolate & Candy Festival.

So mark your calendars for Saturday, March 5th to enjoy a fun-filled and family-friendly afternoon in Downtown Bel Air with chocolate, candy, sweet treats, and so much more at the 10th Annual Chocolate & Candy Festival! Bel Air … Be a Part of it!