Appalachian Culture Fest

Amy and I headed up to Union Terminal this morning to visit the Appalachian Culture Fest.  It is part of the annual "Passport to the World" series of programs.  I've always enjoyed visiting these mini-festivals (though the last time I posted about it was back in 2010, a winter in which we actually got snow).  This particular one is a bit of a preview of the upcoming Annual Appalachian Festival, held at Coney Island each May.  I've wanted to go there for a while but haven't yet remembered to go there.  But when you come to one of the Museum Center's Culture Fests you're in for a treat.

You'll find a great number of vendors hawking their wares.  I'll admit that one with tie-tyed shirts was a bit hard to figure out (how are they Appalachian?).  But there were some neat candles, some that I've seen and bought before (refillable gel candles) as well as some new ones--rocks with holes bored through them for fiberglass wicks that went down into a reservoir glued onto the bottom (yes, technically not candles).

We didn't buy any food, but they certainly had a fun looking candy booth set up!  The sign and program call it a nut hut, but there were many different kinds of candies there.  I didn't take any pictures--but there was also a place that was selling fudge and candied apples.  You could have easily gotten a good number of snacks as well as eating a lunch from the Museum Center's food service areas.

There were several music groups, though we only stopped to hear this girl play--she had also been playing another instrument right before this (I'm not sure what it was, but it was pretty to listen to).  According to the program her name is Susan Pepper.

One of my favourite areas was the woodworking section.  There were three guys working on lathes, and they had a large number of bowls for sale.  I even took a couple of videos of the guy working on what looks like a finial.

I enjoy listening to people like this explain what they do, but I can never think of good questions to ask them myself.

I thought the wood shavings in his beard looked humorous--but you could tell that he really enjoyed what he was doing.  And of course I had to take a picture of the wood shavings themselves--I enjoy detail shots like this.  I wonder if this would make a good background...

We also wandered into the Appalachian Trail area, which featured some neat information and fun activities for kids.  We saw some interesting displays on lumber and coal (which are both big industries in Appalachia).

You can see a pile of gear used by coal miners, and Amy is standing next to a model of a coal mine passageway or entrance (I'm not sure which it was).

 Kids got to make a simple banjo out of wood and it looked like so much fun!  I wish that I'd been working with that so I could have made one of my own!  What can I say, sometimes kids get all the fun and I'm quite jealous.

In the background of the above shot you can see a guy in overalls--I think he was running a display about honey.  There was also a table that had fresh butter samples as well as homemade apple butter.  It reminded me that we haven't eaten much of the apple butter that we made last fall (the bit that is left after we gave much away at Christmas that is).

Before we headed up to Tower A (look for a blog post about that tomorrow) I had to show Amy the women's restroom nearby (no, not the inside).  There are some nice decorative displays on either side of the door.  Do you know what they're made from?

They're carved linoleum!  This is one reason I love historic buildings--you see things that are so different from how today's society constructs things.  They're not always necessarily "better" but they're different and fun to see.

If you're in Cincinnati then head up to the Museum Center tomorrow for day two of the Culture Fest.  All you'll have to pay for is parking (I think that is $6 a car), all other activities are free (unless you go into one of the museums--you still have to pay for those).

~Matt

PS All of the above pictures (and a couple more) are in a Picasa Web Album: