~ The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on August 9, 2012. At 3:00 on Saturday, at Floydfest’s Virginia Folklife Porch, staffers set the stage for the wedding of Drew White and Jessica Smotrel, the first couple to take advantage of the music festival’s inaugural VIP wedding package. Friends and family of the couple, [...]
Grandson Bryce hams it up eating watermelon in the Beer Garden with his nana and opa. There are staff golf carts and there are uncle’s backs for getting around the 80 acre Blue Ridge festival site. Everyone else walks. The theme for this 11th year annual music festival was Lovers Rock and my son Josh [...]
Floydfest this year reminds me of the movie Saving Private Ryan. It’s a strange connection to make, but Saving Private Ryan is the only movie that had me crying with emotion within the first two minutes of the film, and Floydfest started (Thursday night) on such an emotional high note with Jackson Browne’s stellar performance [...]
~ Feelin’ the Love at Floydfest. Two days down, two more to go! See photos and read about past Floydfests HERE. Note: If the videos don’t work or are slow to load, click on the upper left corner of them and they will play at youtube.
~ The following first appeared in The Floyd Press newspaper on July 26, 20102. We care about every detail, from every color to every light to every presentation throughout the festival grounds. Kris Hodges, speaking at the National Council on Arts in D.C. in October 2011. “Floydfest Ambiance Director. That’s my official title,” said Barbra [...]
The following appeared in The Floyd Press on July 19, 2012 and was written three weeks before the start of the four-day festival, July 27th. Josh Newsome worked at Floydfest for six years before becoming a full-time year-round employee of Across the Way Productions, the event management company that puts on the annual four day [...]
~ The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on August 4, 2011 The Imagine Tent teen scene at Floydfest was conceived of two years ago during Floydfest Revival when a group of local teens, who were wandering the festival grounds, waved down festival staffer Joe Klein, wanting a ride in his golf cart. After [...]
I watched Eustace Conway put up a teepee in the Global Village in about eight minutes. Conway is a naturalist and primitive living teacher who was the subject of a book by Elizabeth Gilbert before Eat, Pray, Love, called The Last American Man. Watch a video clip HERE. Sun and fun, sons and a grandson [...]
I keep writing Floydfest 11 for the year but the actual annual event is at year 10 and the Floydfest family has been getting a lot of mileage out of using the Roman numeral X, with words like X-traodinary to describe the 4 day music X-travaganza. Below is a sampling of scenes from Floydfest X [...]
~ The following originally appeared in the Floyd Press. Floydfest is turning 10 years old this month. A celebration honoring that milestone and the people that made it possible was held at Dogtown Roadhouse on June 29. Floydfest founders Erika Johnson and Kris Hodges and the Across-the-Way Productions staff welcomed over 100 people to the [...]
~ The majority of the photos and captions below were published in The Floyd Press newspaper on July 7, 2011. At the Fandango Beer and Wine Festival last Sunday, festival founders Kris Hodges and Erika Johnson pause to pose with their daughter, who is enjoying lemonade from one of the festival food vending tents. Inside [...]
~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on August 5, 2010. An Open Mic at Floydfest’s Children’s Universe was conceived last year when Children’s Universe director Uriel Yard noticed a young musician who was persistently trying to get on stage to perform. She voiced her interest to festival planners about providing a performance [...]
1. In the Global Village at Floydfest I went from a talk on the teachings of Buddha to petting a milking cow named Primrose. I met a young boy who was carving a bowl out of stone in the primitive arts camp, danced in my bare feet on the grass to the music of a [...]
1. Old Crow Medicine Show sang my favorite song about the “Down Home Girl” who came right off Maggie’s Farm … Well I swear your perfume, baby, is made out of turnip greens … Every time I kiss you girl, it tastes like pork and beans … (Video HERE .) 2. The heat didn’t hinder [...]
1. We could have been in Florida. Flamingos fit right in with the hot and hazy temperatures (in the high 90’s) at Floyd fest on Friday. 2. Some tried out the new floor in the dance tent (video HERE). 3. The heat didn’t keep people from attending in droves. 4. The view from one person’s [...]
~ The following is a slightly edited version of a story that appeared in The Floyd Press on July 22, 2010. For 9 years now Floydfest has been growing its reputation of presenting quality music entertainment, arts and crafts, performance arts, healing arts, and family-centered fun. This year’s theme “Breaking Ground” refers to the progress [...]
~ The following essay about last year’s Floydfest was written for and submitted to this year’s festival program. I catch myself smiling a lot at Floydfest, like I do at home in the garden. Every whimsical encounter and seemingly random exchange with others feels like a line-up of destiny and adds to the whole of [...]
