October 2001

FANS OF YEARLY FEST SHOW UP DESPITE DRIZZLE

The 2001 festival opened with a patriotic salute to our local fire, police and military forces, as well as a remembrance of those who lost their lives to terrorist acts. Mayor Bright, representatives of the fire department, police department, branches of the military and the National Guard participated. 

RAIN DAMPENS FESTIVAL A LITTLE

The name on the labels of bars of Alabama-made soap in a vendors' tent at Festival in the Park said it all Saturday morning - Gentle Rain.

The first rain in weeks in Montgomery held the early crowd down for the 29th annual arts and crafts festival in Oak Park, but hundreds were there and attendance was growing as the drizzle stopped before midday.

Besides the arts and crafts, the festival also offered three stages with live music, cloggers, cheer and dance teams, karate and Tai Chi demonstrations and puppets. Face painting for the children, and food ranging from all-American hot dogs to fish and shrimp tempura was available.

Sharon Sessions refused to let the rain sifting through the canopy over her booth dampen her spirits as she sold Boll Weevil soaps and lotions made in Enterprise.

"We do well in all the shows around Montgomery, and we did well here last year," she said.

Across the park, Lulu Schmidt of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., sold realistic rose, ginger and chrysanthemum flowers meticulously built petal-by-petal from cleaned, painted and deodorized sea bass fish scales.

"I live by the water. The raw materials are free. What is challenging is the time and labor. I go to a nursery and get flowers. I take them apart and draw and take pictures. I take the scales, cut and trim and hand-paint them and rebuild the flowers. I also use scales for the leaves, and I even use ground-up fish scales to make the pollen," Schmidt said.

Kay McCreery, a member of the Festival in the Park board took time between bites of a sandwich to explain the event.

"The festival does make money," she said. "The sponsors are the city of Montgomery and its Parks and Recreation Department. The money goes back into the event and to buy trees to refurbish the park," she said.

The rain did cut morning attendance by an undetermined amount she said, "But the crowd should pick up this afternoon, and the people who are here are the ones who are serious about shopping," she said.

Among the Festival shoppers were Carol Rylee of Montgomery and her British friend, Doreen Mullen of the village of Maulden, near London.

"We are trying to cram in some American experience in the South for Doreen," Rylee said.

"I bought 6 necklaces, and we are still looking," she said. The Festival had more in common with similar arts and crafts exhibitions in Australia rather than those in England, Mullen said.

"We don't have quite this selection," she said. "Our crafts shows have things made of dried flowers, and baskets and door plaques, but not a lot of the wooden things you have. But this is fun and interesting to see," Mullen said.

Published: Montgomery Advertiser, October 7, 2001