Festival of the Arts 2009

[John E]

I'm enjoying the festival so far. Good shows, good food (egg rolls, yum, yum) and good crowd!

My photos and eventually videos will be in the Festival 2009 set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johne777/sets...57619296602872/

~John

[Veloise]

Plenty of seating, c'mon down!

DT retail: doing just fine.

Henna tattoos

Now this is a soundboard.

I like the contrast of the modern fold-up stage with the vintage building.

Heavy metal in the Dixieland band

I'm sitting there enjoying the music and a Festival photog asked when I would put in my own low brass appearance. Can't go anywhere.

Banners

Schubert Male Chorus made the big time!

More tomorrow.

[John E]

What a great and beautiful day to be in Grand Rapids. Totally awesome day for the festival! Ran into John Rothwell and another photographer. It was super cool meeting and chatting with them. The crowd was spectacular! Large and very orderly.

I have a video showing the crowd at the Calder Stage Friday Evening on Flickr. I also have more pictures in the Festival 2009 set.

~John

[John E]

Performance videos are too large for Flickr so I just uploaded a performance by the Rockford School Of Dance to YouTube.

[arcturus]

My first festival and really enjoyed it. My top musical picks - LittleEdge (9yr old that rocked the house), Sun Gun, Lynn Thompson Band, The Mercury Crash, Stickerblister, and Twofivesix. Though I didn't hear them there was a good buzz for Left Hand Daisy.

Going down later today. If anyone has suggestions on good hard-edged rock groups performing I'm all ears.

[Veloise]

More pics.

This year the plastic bottle recycling is these cardboard boxes. I think last year's clear bags worked better.

Three Pitch In boxes in this picture.

Bike park, which serves as a street tuba launch site

Happy Birthday for Festival's 40th.

Boogie Woogie Babies

Over behind City Hall is a silkscreen tent where you can buy a plain white T (real cheap) and happy volunteers will silk-screen this year's Festival designs onto it. This guy created a couple of them and he brought a bag of shirts for the addition of new designs. (He said that Festival could use more design submissions.)

Adult paint-in

West Michigan Gay Men's Chorus. A friend of mine made their vests, and I know a couple guys in the group. (They sounded better than the Schubert group, IMHO)

This was fun to watch. Everything's free at Festival.

Schuler's very own concert tent

I'll be surprised if we don't see more vendor booths lining Monroe Center in future years.

This is clever.

Umbrellas anyone? Come back Monday when we are open.

Maybe more tomorrow...my feet hurt.

[GRDadof3]

I overheard someone asking "why no beertent at Festival." Good question.

[fotoman311]

I overheard someone asking "why no beertent at Festival." Good question.

[GRDadof3]

I think I kind of like it better that way.

"Why no* drunk people at Festival?"

No beer tent.

*minimal drunk people

Ottawa Tavern was doing fantastic business all weekend long. It could be that they don't want to deal with the hassle and there are plenty of establishments within walking distance that can fulfill that need.

I had a fantastic time this weekend. We went down all three days for a considerable period of time and the place was just packed, especially on Saturday afternoon. It was difficult finding a space for our tandem in the bike corral. I love seeing all these people out in the streets of downtown! And some way, some how, all those thousands of people managed to find parking. Imagine that!

Also, this afternoon we saw Potatoe Babies for the first time. What a CRAZY set that was. hahaha.

[John E]

This was the best festival in the last decade! I wasn't there much Saturday but was there a couple times on Friday and was there all day Sunday. It was a great time and an awesome festival this year.

I am extremely glad that they don't have beer tents at the "FAMILY" festival! The crowd was very large and I didn't see any problems at all.

I'm uploading like 185 photos from today. I hope this upload goes smoothly. I had a problem with an upload yesterday so not all my pictures ended up in the Festival 2009 set. I have more videos but need to sort through them. Haven't even watched them yet.

The festival needed a successful year and I'm sure this one set some records. What a grand 40th Festival Of The Arts!

Festival 2009 set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johne777/sets...57619296602872/

~John

[Veloise]

A few years back I volunteered at the fireworks. Guess it was the last year before Ed Kettle stepped up. There was a beer tent.

Liability, snow fencing, security, temporary alcohol license, etc. It's a big expense, and if it isn't handled right, it's a mess. (We had to card e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e, drinking or not. Senior citizens with silver hair. What a pain.) We were told to not allow anyone to sit in the beer tent, including chairs or on the grass. "They'll get too comfortable." Huh.

OTOH, the organizers mentioned how extremely profitable a beer tent can be. Overhead is minimal (not like they have a fixed location to maintain) and those wanting beer pay something like $5 for a 12oz plastic cup.

A beer tent would take sales away from the established venues, but...as long as Monroe Center is closed, put it out front of the last block (by GRPD). It might be worth a try.

(suggested a dance tent, a la Great Lakes Folk Festival)

[Veloise]

My last batch of photos, and a clarification. It turns out that the make-your-own T-shirt screening has different designs every day of Festival; five of them. So you could bring a shirt and get it covered in one year.

I will try to remember to post something on UP when Festival '10 sends out the postcard requesting design submissions; guessing that a couple forumers could come up with some great ideas.

Shortcut between the bike park and the Outer Fringe area. Saves a lot of bumping and careful walking and time.

GRAM keeps adding interesting things. The tables contained make & take projects: beads and wire, a la Calder mobiles.

Seems like the designers for the dance troupe costumes outdo themselves in colors and contrast with Big Red (Calder stage again).

These dancers did a lovely set. When they made a pyramid, with the two wheelers at the base, the crowd applauded and cheered as if they'd scored a goal.

We don't have to wear lovely costumes because we sing really well.

Especially this guy!

[suydam]

A beer tent would take sales away from the established venues

[arcturus]

My first festival and really enjoyed it with one snag ... me and about 150 people waited for an hour ( 3 - 4 pm) for the historical trolley ride but they didn't show up Ok, technically they did show up but only to offload people. Guess that was the first hint something was amiss.

How has the festival morphed over the years? Some of the veterans told me it was even more conservative which is kinda hard to believe.

[GRDadof3]

My first festival and really enjoyed it with one snag ... me and about 150 people waited for an hour ( 3 - 4 pm) for the historical trolley ride but they didn't show up Ok, technically they did show up but only to offload people. Guess that was the first hint something was amiss.

How has the festival morphed over the years? Some of the veterans told me it was even more conservative which is kinda hard to believe.

[arcturus]

Did they elaborate on "conservative?" Festival has always been a family-friendly, endless little kids dancing in tutus, barber shop quartet, church choir, teenage grunge band, really bad lead singer blues band, whole bunch of meat-on-a-stick elephant ear face-painting sidewalk-chalking tire-swinging kind of event. Kind of boring (if you ask me), except for the crowd surfing and people watching. Is that what they meant?

[Veloise]

On Sunday, one of the stage patter people (the once-a-year "here's a mic, talk at the crowd" volunteers) went off about the first years of the event. Said that there were about five food booths, a couple stages, noon to 6 for two days, and she knew every performer/artist because there were so few of them.

I can appreciate the food booths as a fundraiser for the respective good causes, and that the limited menus need to be something that a bunch of band boosters or church volunteers can prepare. But...four of the five booth things I tried were just not good. Can't imagine the thinking behind The Festival Cookbook. "Take some perfectly good chicken and skewer it, grill until it's inedible."

[nurfle!]

My first festival and really enjoyed it with one snag ... me and about 150 people waited for an hour ( 3 - 4 pm) for the historical trolley ride but they didn't show up Ok, technically they did show up but only to offload people. Guess that was the first hint something was amiss.

[John E]

On Sunday, one of the stage patter people (the once-a-year "here's a mic, talk at the crowd" volunteers) went off about the first years of the event. Said that there were about five food booths, a couple stages, noon to 6 for two days, and she knew every performer/artist because there were so few of them.

I can appreciate the food booths as a fundraiser for the respective good causes, and that the limited menus need to be something that a bunch of band boosters or church volunteers can prepare. But...four of the five booth things I tried were just not good. Can't imagine the thinking behind The Festival Cookbook. "Take some perfectly good chicken and skewer it, grill until it's inedible."

[John E]

This is one photo that I was super happy with. Was set up with my tripod and had my finger on the shutter button and got this cool mid-air shot:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johne777/3604...57619296602872/

I plan on uploading the video I have of one of their performances tomorrow. I uploaded a Kentwood Community Church video today.

I so can't wait for Comcast to upgrade their service to 3.0 here.

~John

http://www.youtube.com/johne777

[John E]

Okay, here is the performance of the Chinese Martial Arts Center:

[fotoman311]

[OliverMadison]

I believe that basically describes their sentiment. Guess sex, drugs, and rock & roll is for another venue