About
Our new venue is located between 30th St. and 29th St.
Wheatsville Arts Festival
Our transportation to a 4th of July celebration Down East was a small sailboat called “The Many Leaky”. During the party aboard a houseboat anchored in the Damariscotta River, I was invited to attend The Maine Festival with former Austin resident, and raku potter, Prudence Gill.
Held on the impressive campus of Bowdoin College, the 10 day event hosted an indoor film festival and competition, plus 100 artists and artisans set up outside demonstrating their crafts and selling their work. Stages for live performance were erected in various sites on the quad, part of the original 1802 campus. Traditional music, jazz, and dance alternated their times; the poetry stage was tucked into a quiet corner between two castle type buildings. The 5th stage for rock and big bands was sited in a field near the parking, allowing plenty of room for the large crowds.
We had the unbelievable good fortune to spend 5 months in Massachusetts and Maine, as our camping trip had turned into a working vacation. I had quit my job as deli team manager to make the trip. Not a tough decision, considering that there was no stove in the co-op’s “new” location; but that is another story.
Upon returning to the hot, dry south, I came back to Wheatsville seeking employment and volunteered for a board committee whose goal was finding ways to get the co-op more involved with our new neighborhood.
The Maine Festival, still fresh on my mind, and photos in hand, I convinced everyone that we could do something similar in the north parking lot at Wheatsville, and they went for it. A jury was installed and 17 artists purchased booths that first year. We scheduled performing musicians, belly-dancers, jugglers and a puppeteer with the promise of a free lunch.
It was not a beautiful baby, but the festival was born Dec. 1st & 2nd 1984.
