Loose Leaf Notes

– The following first appeared in The Floyd Press with a larger spread of photos on August 13, 2015.  

Whether it’s performance art, live music, theater or visual art, Floydfest has always been a canvas for creativity.  Everything from the costumes worn to landscaped pools and gardens, and to the vending of fine art and handcrafted wares are examples of Floydfest’s focus on the arts.   

Every year festival organizers add something new to see and to inspire others. One of the first things festival-goers probably noticed at this year’s 14^th annual festival was the 18-foot high, 24-foot wide wooden structure in the shape of a rising phoenix, placed front and center in the main field.  Chalk was provided and attendees were encouraged to write their thoughts, or something they wanted to let go of, on the sculpture, which, building on the 2015 festival theme “Fire on the Mountain,” was ceremoniously burned up in flames on Saturday.

While Saturday night’s headliner, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, were performing the Grateful Dead classic Fire on the Mountain and the Talking Heads Burning Down the House, the giant phoenix was being prepared for lighting and people were gathering around the corded off area to watch.  Colored search lights from Potter’s main stage performance beamed over the giant phoenix.  As the bonfire burned, fire performers from the festival’s Fire Stage danced with lighted torches and swallowed fire.  Fireworks lit up the night sky.

Another dramatic festival performance is one that happens every year and includes the participation of festival-goers. The annual Peace Parade is a colorful, circus-like fanfare that starts at the Children’s Universe (CU) and winds around the main field.  Children, who are assisted to make costumes in the CU tents, parade with their families and friends.

This year the Peace Parade marchers were joined by the Blak Brass Band and 1000 Faces, a mask theater group from Rappahannock County, whose productions in the Global Village and the CU focused on environmental issues.  Saturday’s show, Cassandra Ignored Again, included a funeral memorial for endangered and extinct animals.

Aerial and trapeze performances (and classes), fire dancing, hooping, and band light shows all add to Floyd’s showcase of arts and are set against the backdrop of nature’s mountain scenery.    Festival-goer self-expression and participation is fostered through open mics, dancing, drumming, healing and moving arts workshops.

Throughout the long weekend, the Imagine Tent in the Global Village was packed for extended painting, stenciling and multi media workshops, led by Roanoke artist Katherine Devine, who has been sharing her art and teachings at the festival since its beginning.  

The Imagine Tent also hosted ongoing ukulele classes taught by Mim Jeppson of Mim’s Ukes in Meadows of Dan. Jeppson and her special guests taught beginner and intermediate classes.  Ukuleles and song sheets were provided for all who wanted to learn to play, and the classes were well attended.  “I came away feeling that I was a ukulele player,” said one class attendee.  “It’s so awesome that at Floydfest you don’t come just come to be a spectator, but to get involved yourself,” he added.

– More Floydfest photos are HERE and HERE 

And HERE.