By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
In its 27th year the Black Swamp Arts Festival is looking for a rebound.
Last year, bad weather put a crimp in the festivities, though it was far from the disaster it could have been. At this time in 2018 festival organizers were looking down the barrel at the approach of a severe storm and acted preemptively by canceling the Sunday art show, and moving as many acts as they could inside at Howard’s Club H and Grounds for Thought. Main Street that Sunday seemed awfully gloomy.
So organizers, though, they are leery of ever discussing the weather — out of their control — should be breathing easier looking at the forecast.
This summer Main Street has been an obstacle course. The new coat of asphalt applied last week is welcomed and provides a solid foundation for the art show. But visitors should be cautious as they navigate the streets. The curbs are still a work in progress. Site and logistics chair Alex Hann reports that construction crews will apply more gravel and cold patch to fill in some holes, and they’ll place orange barrels and tape to cordon off spots that cannot be filled.
Festival goers can look forward to enjoying all the annual party has to offer this weekend (Sept.6-8). Hours are: Main Stage Music Friday 5 p.m. to midnight, Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight, Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Art Show Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Youth Arts: Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and teen activities (Chalk Walk and Beats on the Street), Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Here’s scoop on what’s in store.
- The festival kicks off with music on the Main Stage at 5 p.m. The food concessionaires will be hopping, and liquid refreshments flowing. Local singer-songwriter Justin Payne will warm up the Main Stage. He’s followed by Shamarr Allen, a fiery trumpet-playing entertainer from New Orleans. Blues star Samantha Fish returns after her closing show at Howard’s last year. She’s one of four Main Stage acts returning from the soggy 2018.
- The night closes with the most anticipated act, The War and Treaty. Husband and wife Michael Trotter Jr., Tanya Blount seem an unlikely pairing. She’s been a professional with some impressive credits, while his talents blossomed in the unlikely garden of one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in Iraq. Singing his original songs that tap all the roots of Americana, they deliver a powerful sound.
- Festival crews will be out before dawn on Saturday to turn Main Street into an outdoor art gallery. The jurors had a full field of applicants, more than last year, to choose from, and will be back on Saturday to select the winners. All last year’s winners are scheduled to return.
- In the festival’s latest outreach to teenagers, Beats on the Street will debut Saturday. So far two a cappella groups, one each from Bowling Green and Otsego, have committed with two more likely. They will perform in the area where the Chalk Walk art teams, 20 or more, will be drawing street chalk masterpieces. Interesting to note that Zack Fletcher leader of Moths in the Attic, Sunday’s Main Stage opener, and Aaron Pickens, one of the art show jurors, both have fond memories of being at the festival as teens. Pickens performed in a band at an earlier teen engagement venture, Peanut Butter and Rock inside the Cla-Zel. Fletcher remembers mostly hanging out.
- Festival goers are never out of earshot of music. Beside the Main Stage, acts will perform on the Community Stage in the atrium of the Four Corners Center, the Family Stage, and, for night owls, after hours shows at Howard’s Club H and Stones Throw. These stages give listeners a chance to hear popular local performers as well as national acts from the Main Stage in more intimate surroundings. Westbound Situation, Bowling Green-bred string wizard Grant Flick’s newest band, gets to play the Community and Family stage after opening the Main Stage Saturday. Rocker Diana Chittester and her band also get a trio of Saturday sets, on the Main Stage, the community stage and then late night at Howard’s.
- Saturday night’s show will feature a strong Texas twang. Two Tons of Steel, another returnee from 2018, will cover the supper hour, followed by Band of Heathens , which is actually a band of talented songwriters. Shinyribs will close as he did a year ago. Maybe this year when leader Kevin Russell howls at the moon, he’ll actually be able to see it.
- Youth Arts, really a festival within itself, continues its focus on being green, and using recycled materials, including the crayon stubs, old t-shirts, and construction fencing. It’s all about demonstrating how art can be created from what’s ready at hand.
- Nikki D and the Browns, a sacred steel gospel group from Toledo, has Sunday covered. They will start preaching at Howard’s on Saturday at 11:30 p.m. and play until the wee hours of Sunday. They’ll be back to play the Family Stage s just outside Howard’s Sunday at 1:30 p.m., before closing out the Main Stage.
- Each day of the festival has its own tone. Friday is all about the excitement of the festival finally being here, almost like Christmas morning. It all bursts into fruition as the art show springs up on Main Street, and everything’s in full gear driving late into the night. Sunday’s groove is more easy going, savoring the last few sights, sounds, tastes, and textures before Main Street returns to normal.
