INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 29)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

Southeastern Wildlife Exposition … (Part Three)

SEWE

The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition is made up of a lot of events. Everything from art shows, to a Gala, to seminars and a huge BBQ. The perks for being a benefactor are that the benefactor show ready starts 2 days before the masses come. Sam, that’s my business friend who attended with me, and I arrived on Wednesday afternoon. We were just in time for the first benefactor’s event… an evening with the featured artist. The year we attended it was the internationally celebrated wildlife artist, John Seerey-Lester. If you have never seen his work, you really have certainly missed a lot! He is one of the best, if not the best wildlife artists in the world. Not only do you get to meet the featured artist, you get to mingle with and talk to all most of the other attending artists. It certainly was exciting for me to meet all these great artists. Many of whom were from Canada. Although I have worked with a number of talented artists over the years, I am still in awe of the art process and the artists who work everyday to produce it. The talent gathers that evening was mind boggling. This event includes “food and refreshments” … what a spread! It is a wonderful tribute to the organizers of SEWE that they “DO IT RIGHT” and this reception was proof positive. Since I had had a long day driving from Charlottesville, VA to Charleston, SC and Sam from Pittsburgh, we decided to leave early to get a good night’s sleep for the following day’s activities.
Good Night… talk to you next week!

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 28)

Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

Southeastern Wildlife Exposition … (Part Two)

And We’re Off!

If I was going to travel (by car) 1,700km, I wanted to make sure I got my money’s worth. SEWE has a great benefactor’s program. For a very reasonable amount you can become a benefactor of the event. By doing this you receive a great benefits package. It included 2 tickets to all the events plus a few other small perks. They hold special events that only benefactors, dignitaries and artists attend. If you are interested in art and artists, (which I am) it’s a great way to get up close and personal. So, arms with tickets, a full tank of gas and some munchies, I set off on a beautiful sunny day. I had planned the trip there to be a leisurely drive. In fact, I was breaking up the long journey with a visit to my sister who lives in Charlottesville, VA… but that’s another story. After my brief visit, I continued south to Charleston. By now I did have a schedule, because I was meeting I business friend of mine from Pittsburgh in Charleston. He and I were going to enjoy the Exposition together. I finally met him about 30 miles outside of Charleston. This is such a popular event, that all the close accommodations were booked, so we had to opt for a commute, and commute we did… I’ll tell you all about it next week! 

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 27)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

Southeastern Wildlife Exposition … (Part One)

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

You remember the old “shaggy dog” story! Actually it wasn’t night at all. It was dark and stormy, but it was the morning. The night before we had planned on attending a great festival in eastern Ontario, the morning weather discouraged us from taking the 2 ½ hour drive. This left a big void in my plans. The festival was going to be the next event I was going to report on in my daily blog. So, I was left with a choice, stop writing or be creative. If I was to keep writing, what would I write about? Then it came to me. Why not write about the best festival that I have attended so far. A little over 6 years ago I attended the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE for the uninitiated) located in historic Charleston, South Carolina. It’s held every year in February. It includes a lot of different events, but it is best known for its wildlife art show. It attracts the best wildlife artists in the world. People from all over North America and beyond attend and I was one of them. I’ll tell you the story next week…

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 26)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

ACROSS CANADA … Algonquin and Then Home

We sadly left Ahmic Lake and headed east. To get to Algonquin Provincial Park, we needed to pass through Huntsville. We stopped there to stock up on supplies. We finally arrived in Algonquin at about 12 noon. Once inside the Park, we found an available “forested" campsite. After we had "staked our claim", we went off to visit the Friends of Algonquin Museum and their gift shop. We were, after all, still on a business trip! That event we had a fabulous meal at Algonquin's Killarney Resort! After dinner we met up with Henry and Debbie Kole and shared their campfire. That night we slept fitfully amongst the trees! The waves from the nearby lake gently kissed the shore and lulled us to sleep. After sleeping late, we got up relaxed and ready to enjoy a day in Algonquin! It was a lazy, idyllic day, spent swimming, sketching by the lake (Judi), exploring the park (me), searching for wildlife (moose) and eating hotdogs and marshmallows, roasted over a sparkling campfire! We spent two wonderful days in the Park. During that time, we visited with Henry and Debbie and their two girls. We also started planning with them, what would eventually become the Cobourg Waterfront Festival. It was an exciting time, full of great expectations, anew home, a new business and new friends! We left Algonquin Park bright and early, stopped in Whitney for breakfast and then traveled to Buckhorn for a meeting with Edwin Matthews, owner of Buckhorn Publishing and Gallery-on-the-Lake. We needed to make a report about our trip to Ed. We finally arrived back in Cobourg at 4:00pm after having traveled "Across Canada"! We had logged over 17,000 kilometers and had been away 45 days!