random thoughts – Day 1,593 – (Sunday) – folked again

This year I hit the Folk Fest trifecta and attended all three days. I've gone to two days before, but I don’t recall attending all three. It took me long enough.

Mariachi!

Today had a plan, developed last night. The schedule of remaining performances was scrutinized. Selections were made for the 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 shows.  The plan was executed flawlessly. It was another great weather day – warm, but cloudy with a refreshing breeze.

On the way to Market Street for the first show, I heard singing on Merrimack. It turned out there was a Street Performer Stage set up there. I had no idea until 12:30 today, but I was glad to catch Veronica Robles Mariachi, the first all-female mariachi band in the region. 

I might have known about this other stage if I had realized the brochure opened larger than the three panels referred to on Saturday. DUH. Now I can only wonder about the Bolivian dance band and breakdance demonstrations we missed. Oh, well.

Masters of Movement.

At 1:00, Masters of Movement featured the dancers of the festival. Farah Yasmeen Shaikh, Native Pride Dancers and Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago presented a lecture demonstration where they talked about and demonstrated their art forms. They had the chance to talk about similarities in the movements, musical rhythms, and themes. Loved it! 

At 2:00, Yoni Battat Ensemble played and talked about Mizrahi Jewish Ensemble music. People were on blankets and chairs on the lawn at St. Anne’s Episcopal.

At 3:00, it was back to the Market Street Stage for Farah Yasmeen Shaikh’s performance of Kathak dance, a form of Indian Classical Dance. The dances are stories with the dancer portraying multiple characters and it was amazing. The transitions and facial expressions for each role in the stories were amazing. A little girl in the audience near me stood in a wagon and followed along with the beautiful dancer on stage and it was adorable.

Farah Yasmeen Shaikh.

Early in the show, a dude approached and stood directly in front of the stage. He was looking at the dancer oddly – outright leering and swaying – and it felt like a situation in the making. The dancer kept on talking and began her dance.

When leering dude turned away and headed up the aisle, clutching a green Heineken can peeking above the top of a crumpled brown paper bag, it was clear by the staggering that he was very drunk. Quite effed up. Later, he returned to the stage, and again left without incident.

While leaving the festival, the Jessie Daniel honkey tonk country band was on stage at Boarding House Park. The place was packed. All the stages I saw throughout the event were crowded. It will be interesting to see the attendance figures. 

I had deliberately gambled with the baklava sundae by not checking its availability at the tent near Boarding House when I arrived. The deal was, if it was still on the menu at the food court near the garage where I was parked, I would get it before I headed out and call it supper. I knew the risk, and was actually a bit relieved that it was demoted to "sundae"  so late in the festival. No baklava sundae for me.

On the way home, I headed up Bridge Street to Market Basket. A police car with lights flashing was parked on the side of the street and another was approaching, siren blaring. I recognized the drunk guy from the festival being fitted for a set of bracelets from an officer. Looks like his festival drinking may have caught up with him.

Ice age.

At Market Basket, I checked for baklava so I could make my own sundae, but the bakery had none. A couple of the ice cream freezers had some ice age deep freeze thing going on and the Ben and Jerry's and Haagen Dazs were encased in thick frosty ice that made it impossible to see what the flavors even were. I got the usual salad stuff and a new plant for the yard that hopefully the local wildlife won't devour. As for my Hood black raspberry ice cream, that is definitely being devoured.