Coral Kendall (aka Cheeky), a Radford University student/poet/painter was the youngest reader at The Little River Poetry Festival this weekend. …I want to know what I feel like / what happens to my thighs that jiggle like the butterfly effect / that sends a tsunami that wipes out China / tell me at that moment […]
The 5th Annual Little River Poetry Festival (at On the Water in Floyd) was my first event since the pandemic sent us all home to our rooms. It was the smallest turnout yet but that made for a deeper sharing and enough were committed to coming that it turned out to be a wonderful success. […]
Where else but in Floyd can you learn from an old-timer how to forage ginseng one day and then meet Wavy Gravy – the Woodstock clown with an ice-cream flavor named after him – in town for FloydFest the next? Where Else But Floyd is the name of my 30+ year poetry and essay-excerpted retrospective […]
-The following was written by the Little River Poetry Festival co-founder Jack Callan and first appeared in The Floyd Press on June 4, 2020. The Festival will take place June 12-14, 2020 at On the Water in Floyd. What if you were out with your dog an’ it run off with no, “May I go?”, […]
-The following is an article written by Judith Stevens, co-founder of the Floyd Little River Poetry Festival (June 12 – 14), with an addition that addresses the coronavirus. The story is featured in the Floyd Virginia Magazine on news stands around Floyd now. For the fifth consecutive year, Daniel Sowers, owner of “On the Water […]
Here are a few family outtakes and video clips from Floyd Yoga Jam 8 to check out while waiting for the big story and spread to come out in the paper. We did a lot of this. And this. And this is how many of us felt by Sunday afternoon when the four-day festival was […]
It was one dance party after another, starting with (for me) Noah Proudfoot and the Botanicals, who when I first saw them in the Yoga Jam program, I thought they were going to lead an herb workshop. I took my shoes off to dance and they got down and dirty. This is where I said […]
-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on August 1, 2019. Floydfest Voyage Home 2019 was a sold-out show that saw the best weather in recent memory. The sun shone down on as many as 15,000 happy campers and music lovers, which included those who come back year-after-year and a new generation of first-time […]
Meet my 5 guys. And this is our crew. Every year we get together for a Floydfest family portrait. And every day at Floydfest there’s a new hat. See what I mean? T-shirts are a thing too. And always there is ice cream. The natives like to hang out in the Children’s Universe. I like […]
Sometimes all it takes is a basil mozzarella quesadilla and some up-for-grab-fries with friends to say it’s “Floydfest.” It’s the simple things like the grown-up homeboys reunion that says “Floydfest” to me. The headliners are a big draw but sometimes catching the local talent and feeling a sense of Floyd pride is what says “Floydfest.” […]
They’ve voyaged home to the mountain in droves, those who come back every year and first-timers who know that their first time won’t be their last. “If you build it, they will come.” That goes for the festival and its yearly art installations that grace the main field. This year it’s a giant sailing ship […]
-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on July 11, 2019. After 19 years, Floydfest organizers have the festival down to an art, and art is what they spotlight, whether through music, performance arts, installations, woodsy ambiance or artisan food, crafts and libations. Floyd-festers come to the festival’s 80-acre mountain for the music, but […]
-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on June 13, 2019 with the title Word World. The weekend’s rainy weather didn’t dampen the poetic inspiration of those who attended the 4th Annual Little River Poetry Festival (LRPF) (June 7 – 9). The weather may have deterred some from attending, and some events (kayaking and […]
Mara wants to take our poetry routine on the road. Because we know each other so well and have been bouncing off each other’s work for 30 years, our featured reading at the Little River Poetry Festival came off a bit as a comedy act. Back in the day (2005 – 2012) when we […]
-The following first appeared (with a varied spread of pictures) in The Floyd Press on September 6, 2018. The theme of the 7th annual Floyd Yoga Jam, “Illumination,” was incorporated into the festival’s opening ceremony midday on Friday, August 31. Facilitated by ceremonialist/herbalist Katherine Chantal it incorporated Acro Yogis in poses, the lighting of lanterns, […]
Every time I take a crowd scene photo there is one or two people in the shot that I know but only discover when it’s uploaded on my computer. Sunday at Floydfest is always the sweetest day for me in a cherry-on-the-top sort of way. I’m always tired but happy. I flit around less and […]
“Let the rumpus start” kept going through my head when the family arrived to FloydfestWILD on Saturday. We made ourselves at home at the Oasis, the mid-field art installation, designed by Eric Davis as “an oasis in the middle of the wild” where wild things can go to relax. We recognized other Wild Things there. […]
There’s a lot to see doing the late shift at Floydfest and lots of old and new friends to run into. Once again, I arrived in the evening so I could stay late and see the headliner, Foster the People, and the latest all-the-rage Greta Van Fleet, who had just come off a standing ovation […]
