Alan Small – Winnipeg Free Press

If Not A Summer Festival, Then What? Home County Charts Path Forward

Ninety days to fix the festival.

The Home County Festival board is hoping to strike a committee at its meeting Tuesday, giving the group 90 days to come up with a business plan for the future of the summer event with its 2024 edition already nixed.

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But one thing is clear, the status quo of the near half-century old festival at Victoria Park is not tenable, its board chair says.

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"It can't continue the way that it was. That's one thing that the board has agreed on. We would love to hold a free festival in the park for the next 50 years, but that's one idea that's just not feasible," board chair Sara Lanthier said Friday.

The Home County Folk League, the board behind the annual festival, is holding a meeting of it directors and approximately 70 members Tuesday evening at Grosvenor Lodge. The meeting comes a little over a month after the festival's board abruptly announced the 2024 event cancellation as it re-evaluated the future of the free festival.

Members of the folk league keen on having a hand in the future direction of the festival can join the board's planning committee to come up with solutions and a business case, but with a strict timeframe, Lanthier said.

Sara Lanthier, chair of the Home County Music and Art Festival board, says the board hopes to strike a committee at a meeting Tuesday to consider the festival's next steps, but a free weekend festival at Victoria Park is not an option. Photo taken in London on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. (Derek Ruttan/The London Free Press)

"We don't want to prolong everything. We don't want to sit around with big ideas and nothing to back them up," she said.

Only paid members of the league can attend the meeting, Lanthier said. Board directors will be voted on at the meeting. The board's financial position and the cost projections for the cancelled 2024 festival will also be presented.

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The board has come up with a list of guiding principles for the planning committee to consider when coming up with next steps for the festival, Lanthier said.

"Do we partner with another festival, or have smaller events throughout the year? Do we not have a festival at all and become committed to supporting folk musicians in London?" she said.

"The board has already sat down and had these discussions. This is an opportunity for people in the community who are interested to step forward."

The by-donation weekend festival in Victoria Park launched in 1974. While the event receives some grants and is also supported by revenue from vendor booths, the board has said it needs sustainable, long-term funding to be able to continue the summer festival, not just a one-time influx of cash it might receive from a fundraiser or big donation.

Recruiting and retaining volunteer talent in its top ranks is also a pressing issue the Home County Folk League has been facing, particularly since the pandemic.

The 2022 edition of the festival, a scaled-back event returning after a COVID-19 pandemic hiatus, sustained a loss of about $7,000.

The shortfall from this year's event is estimated at up to $30,000. With rising operating costs, the board estimated the loss linked to the now-cancelled 2024 festival could hit $46,000.

jbieman@postmedia.Com

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Festival Of Lights Returns On Dec. 2 To Downtown Elyria

The newest edition of the Festival of Lights returns to downtown Elyria on Dec. 2.

The decades long tradition features a number of events and activities at Ely Square Park, including the arrival of Santa.

The event takes place from 3:30 p.M. To 6 p.M.

This will be the second straight year the Festival of Lights will be without the coronavirus pandemic-related precautions that were taken in 2020 and 2021.

Elyria Mayor Frank Whitfield said last year's event renewed some normalcy.

"In 2022, we had Santa in the Square and kids could come up close to Santa and take a picture and get a goodie bag," Whitfield said. "This year, it's going to be similar.

"Santa will come to town around 5:30, and we have a surprise planned that Santa wants to show people."

Whitfield said the lines get long for this event, so he is asking people to get downtown before 5:15 p.M.

Other attractions at the event include, ice sculpting, caricature art, free snacks and children's gift bags, and even a children's petting zoo.

Whitfield credited the organizations that are making this all happen.

"Elyria Rotary will give out the gift bags," he said. "(Elyria's) Parks and Rec does a lot of coordinating and planning of things.

"Our office is traditionally very involved. This year, because I've been so busy, I haven't been as involved as other years, but there is a piece of it where people will clearly know I was involved. Parks and Rec has really been the foundation of this. "

Whitfield said this time of year is critical for bringing the Elyria community together.

"It brings that Christmas spirit to folks and that giving spirit, that cheer that we need during the season," he said.

Whitfield also said he also believes continuing these kinds of traditions after the pandemic is important.

"There were so many things communities were doing before the pandemic that they stopped doing, period," he said. "Our encouragement to the community is to come up with a bunch of other things this Christmas season.

"Don't let this be the only thing. We encourage our churches, our nonprofits to keep making things happen."

Whitfield said one of the holiday events already set is a winter market Dec. 16 in Elyria put on by Elyria Community Partnership.

He said he hopes the Festival of Lights is just the beginning of a busy, celebratory holiday season in Elyria.

Highlights Of The Brooklyn Folk Festival 2023

The 2023 Brooklyn Folk Festival began on Friday evening, November 17 with a performance on the Main Stage in the Sanctuary of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church by the Down Hill Strugglers (photo above) consisting of (left to right): Eli Smith, organizer and host of the Folk Festival; Jackson Lynch; and Walker Shepard, son of actor and playwright Sam Shepard and actor Jessica Lange.

The Down Hill Strugglers opened with an instrumental, Woody Guthrie's "Cowboy Waltz," and followed that with an uptempo instrumental, the bluegrass classic "Cumberland Gap," featuring a fiddle duet by Messrs. Lynch and Shepard. They did six songs in total, ending with a lively version of "Saddle Up the Grey."

Friday evening included a perfomance by singer and songwriter Peggy Seeger, sister of the late Pete Seeger. She appeared electroniclly on a screen on the Main Stage, from her home in London, and did a set that included her songs "The Invisible Woman" and "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer," and a poignant rendition of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," written by her late husband, Ewan MacColl.

Another Friday evening highlight was an appearance by the Fugs, whose name comes from former Heights resident Norman Mailer's 1948 debut novel The Naked and the Dead. Based on his experience as a soldier in the Pacific Theater in World War II, the manuscript included what Mailer knew as the language typical of soldiers in wartime. His editor told him that a certain word couldn't be used if the novel was to avoid being banned as obscene, so Mailer substituted "fug" for the bannable word throughout. The Fugs were founded in 1964 by two Lower East Side poets, Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg. Sanders, center in the photo above, remains with the band. They opened their set with "Slum Goddess," a song from their first album. The set included "CIA Man" and a spirited rendition of "Kill for Peace." Reflecting Sanders' identity as a poet, they also did a lovely rendition of "How Sweet I Roamed," based on a poem by William Blake, and closed with a musical adaptation of the final stanza of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach.

Saturday afternoon started with a sea shanty sing-along led by Ken Schatz. He led a few rousing numbers, then invited audience members forward for a turn. One of these, Olivia Harding (photo above), led us in singing one of my favorites, "Haul Away, Joe."

Upstairs in the Workshop Room musician and record producer Peter K. Siegel and musician and writer Elijah Wald discussed making records for the Folkways label and dealings, mostly pleasant, with its co-founder Moses Asch. Siegel also demonstrated his skill on banjo (photo above).

Later, on the Parish Hall Stage, the Slide Stops, with caller Sargent Seedo, led a session of line dancing.

Several events during the Festival concerened tha legacy of Harry Smith, described in Wikipedia as "an artist, experimental filmmaker, bohemian, mystic, record collector, hoarder, student of anthropology and a Neo-Gnostic bishop." His best known contribution to music is his compilation of the Anthology of American Folk Music, released by Folkways Records in 1952, which greatlyinfluenced the folk music revival of the 1960s qnd '70s. In the Workshop Room John Szwed (photo above) read from his newly published Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith.

One aspect of Harry Smith's work that fascinated me, given my interest in the connections between music and the visual arts is the series of paintings he made that were based on jazz pieces ke liked. In the photo above are two of them: "Algo Bueno" and "Koko." In these paintings, each image represents a note in the song.

Saturday evening, on the Main Stage. Kashiah Hunter and the Sacred Sounds, from Atlanta, did a rollicking set of Gospel songs that climaxed with a frenetic "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," with a lead vocal by a tall woman in a red top whom Hunter called to the stage but whose name I didn't get. This had many from the audience up and dancing.

On the Main Stage Sunday, Brooklyn native Ramblin' Jack Elliott did a set interspersed with stories about the songs and other musicians who influenced him or whom he influenced. Prominrent among the latter is Bob Dylan. Jack sang two Dylan songs, "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." As for influencers, he did a lively version of Jesse Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues." He concluded with his own song, "Arthritis Blues."

Arthritis is a thing to miss It will leave you walking With a double twist And it's all kinds of trouble Going to find you somehow

Unfortunately, I can relate.

There were many other acts worthy of mention, a few of which were: Brooklyn's own banjo and guitar genius Nora Brown; South Texas' Felipe Perez y Sus Polkeros (Felipe could make sounds from an accordion I'd never heard before); pioneer bluegrass woman Alice Gerrard; and a performance of Songs of Slavery and Emancipation by a group of singers led by Dr. Kathy Bullock.

The 2023 Brooklyn Folk Festival was a great success, drawing capacity audiences. I look forward to its return next year.

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