~ 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 the dance tent (video HERE). 3. The heat didn’t keep people from attending in droves. 4. The view from one person’s living [...]
~ 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 [...]
Besides dancing on stage to Donna the Buffalo and having so many family members share Floydfest with me this year, another little highlighted moment was when I gave my hard working Asheville potter son a massage on the grass in front of the Hill Holler stage to the music of Railroad Earth. During and after [...]
1. I catch myself smiling a lot at Floydfest like I do in the garden at home. Every whimsical encounter and seemingly random exchange with others feels like a line up of destiny and adds to the whole of the enchantment that makes the festival weekend special. The picture above is of Floydfest founders Erika [...]
1. After Donna the Buffalo’s Jeb Puyear sang the torrential rains away with some shamanistic good licks and lyrics about the river of love and mystic waters, the sky cleared to blue on Saturday afternoon and the crowd returned for the band’s rousing set. My sister Trish and I spent some time on stage in [...]
1. This is the photo that inspired the above title because I can easily imagine it as a captioned postcard from Floydfest. It’s of my sister Tricia, her husband Dan, and sons Matthew and Patrick who came from Massachusetts for the festival this year. We had just finished visiting the hospitality tent after a golf [...]
~ The following was published in The Floyd Press, July 23, 2009 Judging by pre-ticket sales, the Floydfest world music and art festival may just be recession proof, say festival founders Kris Hodges and Erika Johnson. “In hard times, we need more than ever to recreate, to camp, and experience music,” Johnson said. “Some venues [...]
Many of the following photos were published in The Floyd Press on May 7, 2009. 1. A busy group at last Saturday’s Floydfest workday. Workers from Floyd, Blacksburg, Radford, Hillsville, and Cana came to exchange their labor for tickets for the July 23-26 Floydfest music festival or for the Floyd Fandango Beer and Wine Fest [...]
