50th Philadelphia Folk Festival in Schwenksville, PA

A longtime volunteer for the Philadelphia Folk Festival, this is the week I usually go up and camp there for ten days. The first 7 are work days,where my crew paints signs, murals and special sculptures that decorate the entire concert/crafts area. followed by three days of fun, music and crafts, then another long day of labor-intensive strike down work.

This year, the crew is taking care of business while their fearless leader (my husband) is home trying to work on find better health (he has a stomach thing going on.) I've been home too, (hey, he's my hubby! ...where he goes, I go!) making sure he is well-supplied with Pedialyte, ginger ale, rice, chicken noodle soup,...

We will both hopefully get up there soon. Meanwhile, we've been in touch with the crew up there now. They are dealing with lots of wet weather, which is a drag. Paint never dries when it rains, even when we have them under tents. But you know? Things could be worse! I do hope that the wet forecast for this next week doesn't make this year's 50th Philadelphia Folk festival as wet as Musikfest was.
Take a look! (Such a shame.)
http://musikfest.org/flood/

For info on the 50th fest, visit http://folkfest.org

Some more fest photos - Graphics crew work

Shown here are a few more of my photos from this year's folk fest. This first pic informs you of the theme in case you didn't know it.

These banners were created by Laura, one of our crew members, and hung in the place of the old main gate. The structure was torn down a few years ago. . . I still miss that wonderful breeze that used to waft through there. One could be on the shade on a hot day, but could stay cool and always find a breeze under there!





An army of butterflies invaded fest land this year, thanks to Jeremy's genius. One even landed on the top of the big banjo!








Here are some butterflies in the making.




An increase in wind prompted Bugsy to tighten the ropes on the big guitar.
It was the first appearance of this banjo, Casey's baby. And the mandolin up there on the upper left of this photo was Dave's creation, with a little help from Amy D!.



Thursday pre-fest. Intermittent sprinkling happening.
Deadlines are looming. Gotta get done!
Saved by the plastic tent!

2009 Philly Folk Fest: I'm back!

Actually I've been back from fest for over a week now, but I've been very busy with other family events, unpack and catch up duties,...

Here are a few pix from the festival.
My crew decided that this year's theme was the Jersey Shore. So we made a lighthouse of course! (Complete with a working light for the evening concerts!) Unfortunately due to buckets of rain the day or two before the festival actually started, there was an awful lot of mud. That's why you see the yellow caution tape around the lighthouse area. Even though the Groundz volunteers spread hay, this well-traveled area just inside the Main Gate became similar to quicksand and had to be roped off!

Horror stories about parking were also rampant around fest this year because of the rain and mud. But hey, it's an outdoor festival. We all learn to deal and roll with the punches!












Pictured here is last year's Giant Martin Guitar. This year it greeted crafts shoppers flanked with a stingray, jelly fish, and toward the right, a giant fiddle.












Then there were the Giant Jersey Shore Beach Towels.

Awesome Job, by Laura and company!











The Making of a Giant Beach Towel

Picture here: Amy D painting, with Ellen pretending to work in the background.

This year's fiddle wasn't the only new Giant instrument made. We also constructed a huge washboard dangling over the SingOut Magazine Booth!

At right, is Rachel's Desert Island Camping Gate painting.


Go Cianna Go!
Everyone Helps at Graphics! (We recruit 'em young!)




And then there was the music,...
it's why we come!

Dave R and Eli
Eli was an awesome student one night when some of us were jamming. He played some washboard, learned a little banjo,...
did a great job!






Thanks to Karla, I learned a little banjo, too!
(She awakened a sleeping beast within me. Now, I want to learn to play banjo again!)

Thanks so much, Karla!

And a great big thank you to all the members of our crew, from Tom and myself.

Philadelphia Folk Festival, 2008

The 47th Philly Folk Fest has come and gone.

Installing the "8" in "2008".

I spent the week before the fest up at the Old Poole Farm, (where it is held every year) camped with the Graphics Crew, painting the signs and murals that decorate the grounds. This year Graphics out-did themselves, in my opinion. We all (a group of about 30 or so volunteers) helped with the work. There was no whining (although I think there was some whinnying from Rachel's horses!)
Everyone worked together and got it done. Some people helped with painting over last year's images, and some people worked on lettering. Some touched up the road signs ("Folk Fest Next Left"), and some installed them along the road. Some helped design the sixteen-foot wooden guitar which hung high over the entrance to the crafts area near the Martin Guitar booth, and some worked on the musical notes which hung across the Old Main Gate roof which wasn't there any more :(

Can anyone (who doesn't know already) guess which song we were doing? (Due to technical problems that arose, we couldn't get it down completely accurately, but we didn't do too badly.)
Some painted sea horses and regular horses, horse shoes, and rope. Some Some did the Fest Face and some did "ALIVE!" posters.
To all of the crew:
Mama Tine, Cianna, Eli, Rachel, Tink, Jon Jon, Ben, Jeremy, Laura, Frankie, Lenny, Amy, Mike, Dave, FX, Laine, Courtney, Jenn, John, Dianna, Ramona, Chris,
Casey, Bugsy, Mike, Pat, Joe, Laur, Sarah, Bev, Josh, Dawn, Erin, Marcy, Matt, Dave, Gloriana

Thank you! from ANATNOM MAN:

Some pix below...


Installing the sixteen-foot Martin guitar.



We all help out no matter what our size!

I have many more photos, but am having a bit of tecchie problems.
Will hopefully have it fixed soon!