Every year, Roanoke hosts what they call Festival in the Park. The festival has been going on for over 40 years in some shape or form, starting as a sidewalk art show. I can remember growing up and going with our mother who would show her works during the festival. Now, my mother comes up from South Carolina on Memorial Day weekend and we go to the festival as patrons, rather than artists.
The festival still features art, but has grown to be so much more. The festival runs every Memorial Day weekend and features crafters, concerts, live bands, children’s activities, food, dancers….you name it and it’s there. This year they had renowned sand sculptor Carl Jara creating sand sculptures at the festival.
While we were there on Saturday, he was finishing up a trio of musicians as his tribute to Roanoke’s musical side of the festival. He had already completed the female jazz singer, belting out her song and a rock guitar player ready to let it rip. The third musician was still yet to be seen, as all we could see was what looked like a large three tier cake of sand. The artist started chiseling as we were leaving and in the Sunday edition of our local paper we were able to see that the cake of sand ended up being a country musician.
The details on the pieces were amazing. I don’t understand how they can stay put so well, but it is supposed to be just sand and water that holds them in place until mother nature or the human element takes them down.
The sand sculptor travels all over the world completing works of art that are only temporary in the grand scheme of life. The only permanent record is through photos taken of the creative and jaw dropping monuments carved out of sand and water.
There were lots of other interesting things going on when we were there…an antique car show, a ballet performance, a rock band of young boys playing to their screaming teenage groupies, a tub of suds sponsored by the city Fire Department for children (which was extremely popular on such a warm day – especially the hosing off afterwards) and my favorite thing to do…people watch.
You see all sorts of people at these events, from families with children to couples on dates to those looking for art to hippies to homeless. Even four legged friends are welcome at the festival. There were lots of cute dogs to be seen everywhere. And some even looked like their owners, or their owners looked like them…not really sure how that every really works, but it never fails that you see them. I wanted to snap a picture of one really cute pup and his owner, but it would have been too obvious and you never know how people feel about having strangers take thier photos.
It was a very enjoyable day.
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