On September 17th, 2011 students here at Frostburg State University flocked to see the big event in the upper quad. The event was the Appalachian Festival. The festival began at 10:00 am and ended approximately at 6:00pm.The festival consisted of folk music, baked goods, fresh homemade food and drinks, hand made novelties, children’s puppetry, a goat petting zoo, and bees!
The music attracted many local fans. One band had a cello, banjo, guitar, and vocal sound effects of animals! A crowd favorite by this band was a song “Honey are you mad at your man” by “The Bear Hill Bluegrass band“. The band also sang a song of a very dysfunctional farm where the cow didn’t even produce milk. The song seemed to make the crowd chuckle. One student by the name of Kyle Nichols said the music felt “deep down and dixie!” He continued to do his own impression of folk dance, which made his friends laugh uncontrollably. Then he went on to say that the festival was a “bluegrass, county a** kind of festival.” It was hard to tell if Kyle Nichols was a true fan to the folk scene or someone just clowning around, due to his semi sarcastic nature.
The Amish were spotted at the mall selling their goods before the festival and also present at the festival dressed in their traditional attire. They brought with them some of their homemade treats. Some treats included pumpkin rolls (yes, pumpkin rolls and not pumpkin pie), chocolate chip cookies, hot and cold apple cider, honey, chocolate cakes with leaf decorations for autumn, and mini fruit tarts. A fellow student Ashlee Banks said “They don’t have any darn lemon tarts!” Another student, Andrea Bell commented that “The bees love this cider!”
Another one of the main attractions were the small shops. The shops included items that were typical of crafty country creations, that is: creative, cute and valuable. One stand had purses made of jean material to look like jean skirts. Some were embellished with embroidery and some had sequins. Another stand had sock animals. The surprising part about the stand was that the sock animals were not only monkeys, but frogs and other creatures too. A stand that drew a lot of attention to young females at Frostburg was one that had homemade jewelry. The stand had wire and bead necklaces, necklaces made of scrabble, guitar pick earrings, and rings of clay material made to look like beautiful roses.
Knowing that many people would probably result in children being brought to the festival, the Appalachian festival made accommodations. Children were entertained at this festival with a puppet show and a petting zoo of goats. The goats were brought to the festival by the “Capering Kids Goat Club”. The puppet show seemed to please as well, to everyone besides one small boy who seemed frightened by the puppets due to his outburst of tears.
People who came to the event became quite comfortable. Some brought their dogs, some went barefoot, some danced, and some even started to play Frisbee on the yard. The overall mood of the event was relaxed as well as cheerful. The weather was permissible, yet chilly and the event turned out to be a success.
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