Oaxacan Dancers
I’m currently in Seattle, working at the Northwest Folklife Festival for the sixth consecutive year. (Posts from previous festivals here, here, here, here, and here. I’m once again working as the Signage Coordinator, overseeing all the signs and banners for the 4-day festival. Things have run relatively smoothly for me despite some unexpected setbacks, like the removal during the past year of a number of trees from which I usually hang banners. I’m worn out though; I’ve been getting to Seattle Center between 7 and 8 a.m. for the last week, and leaving between 6 and 11 p.m. Tomorrow, the last day of the festival, I plan to go in a little bit later. It’ll be a late night though, as we start to tear things down as soon as the festival is over.
Israel Shotridge -
Tlingit Master Carver
The weather has been beautiful, and I’ve had a fair amount of time to walk around and enjoy the festival. We (the staff) were given coupons for free meals from various food vendors, so I’ve been studding myself with festival food for the past few days. Tonight I had my favorite festival dish: the blackened salmon Caesar salad from Scotty’s. That represents just about the pinnacle of festival nutrition; my other selections have included Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked ice cream and an elephant ear.
Little Fiddlers
I’ve had a chance to play with my new camera some more. I’m still getting the hang of it, but I’ve managed to get a few decent pictures. I’ve posted 30 or 40 of what I’ve shot so far. I’ll probably have some more after tomorrow. Click any of the thumbnails above to visit the gallery.
Tiny Oaxacan
Dancer
My next batch of scanned photos is from this year’s Folklife Festival in Seattle. I’ve added 33 photos, which brings my total (including my first gallery of digital pics) to 60. Highlights of this album include a retro-punk busker, a family that evidently got a discount on floral cloth, a breakdancer, the adorable little girl seen at right, some soulful and well-dressed gospel singers, and my friend Jerin captivating the under-12 demographic. Click the pic to see the entire gallery.
A Samba Dancer from The
Lions of Batucada
This year’s folklife festival went quite smoothly for those of us involved in production. The crew was great, veterans and Folklife rookies alike. In my particular area, signage, I had two very capable assistants — Matthew and Tim. Matthew is the son of one of my mom’s long-time friends, and he and I haven’t seen each other for about sixteen years. It was nice to see him again and do a little catching up. But, I digress. The nature of signage is such that you rush around before the festival putting signs and banners up, but everything generally calms down by the second morning of the actual run. Matthew was only with us for a couple of days before the festival, but Tim was there through the whole run. As a result, Tim and I had alot of free time to go out and enjoy the festival. With two good guys helping out and four festivals already under my belt, this year was quite stress-free. From what I heard from other areas (programming, sponsorship, etc.), it seems as though everyone had a pretty smooth run.
March Fourth Hula
Hooper
Despite the relatively low-key nature of this year’s festival, it still wore me out. I was there usually between seven and eight in the morning, and never left before six, although some nights I was there considerably later. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights we partied too, first celebrating the end of the festival proper, then various stages of the take-down process. On Wednesday night (the biggest celebration), some of my co-workers started pestering me to come back out to work at Bumbershoot, an arts festival that takes place over Labor Day weekend. I guess I won’t be in school yet then, but it’ll sort of depend on the pay and what I’m up to in Madison.
The Masses on Saturday
With all the free time I had, I was able to snap quite a few pictures. I’ve posted a number of digital shots, but I have a few rolls of film to develop and scan, as well. At the moment, my gallery consists largely of pics from two groups — March Fourth, a punk marching band with stilt-walkers and a hula-hooping anti-cheerleader, and The Lions of Batucada, a samba bateria from Portland. There are also a few other pics showing various other things, including the crowds, a herd of hurdy-gurdies, and some of the more provocative propaganda being carried around the festival grounds. Any of the thumbnails above will take you to the gallery.
