FROSTBURG — Artisans, musicians, craftmakers and vendors helped showcase mountain culture and traditions during this past weekend’s 20th annual Appalachian Festival at Frostburg State University.
“It’s so important to show the diversity in the culture because people sometimes have really stereotypical images of what Appalachia is,” Kara Rogers Thomas, festival director and professor of Folklore and Sociology at Frostburg State University, said.
“What we try to do is broaden those ideas and expand the notions of Appalachia … because it’s really been a melting pot of a lot of different traditions coming together.”
The festival kicked off Thursday with a showing of “King Coal” at the Palace Theatre and a post-film virtual discussion with producer Elaine McMillion Sheldon
Friday, a symposium was held with the theme being “Then and Now: 20 Years in Appalachia: Performing Culture, Reclaiming History and Creating Inclusive Spaces.”
On Saturday, community members, students and families enjoyed numerous events on the FSU campus, including music on three separate stages with a capstone concert featuring Tim O’Brien with Jan Fabricius.
Artisans created and sold handmade crafts ranging from pottery to soap to jewelry to taxidermy.
Heather Reedy runs Mountainside Monster, a small business that creates art and jewelry utilizing local flora and fauna.
“I’ve always been interested in the natural world, taxidermy, dioramas, collecting plants and this was a way to bring that into other things I do illustration and stuff like that,” Reedy said. “So I started doing jewelry making where I take the stuff that I’ve had and I preserve it and make jewelry with it. I try to buy as little as possible.”
Reedy said many things she creates are dependent on the area and procuring items requires luck. She has some pieces that include insects.
“The natural history elements of it allow me to bring (Appalachian culture) in and incite conversation and point out things that I may draw or make that are made using local flora and fauna,” Reedy said.Dana Bridges of Mountain City Traditional Arts and assistant director of the Folklore and Folklife Department at FSU and Thomas can attest to the amount of work that goes into the festival. They said preparation begins in January and they work on it nearly all year.
“It is one of the only festivals that everything here is handmade,” Bridges said. “Nothing here is produced from other places, even all of our food vendors and local farms.”
Aside from highlighting local artisans and musicians, the festival also strives to preserve Appalachian culture and squash the negative stereotypes that some associate with it.
“Our primary goal is the preservation of Appalachian culture,” Bridges said. “And the continuation of those traditions, because if we continue to honor, we don’t want those practices to go anywhere, we want to keep honoring them and also changing some of those stereotypes that a lot of Appalachian areas end up getting.”
Kristen Lennon and David Puthoff of Cumberland showcased their business, Two Plant Doctors Hempery and Natural Wellness, which creates products derived from hemp.
“We have a property where we grow hemp and process it,” Lennon said. “And I make a lot of different natural products — skin care, topical CBD products, home products like our pretty popular laundry detergents, our focus is on being as simple, as natural, as sustainable and affordable as possible.”
Lennon said she was a chronic pain patient who originally purchased hemp products to ease her pain, but realized she could make these items herself.
“The way I think of Appalachia is very independent, self-supporting people and that is what our focus is and these are things that we can do here in our area,” Lennon said.
“And we have a major focus of trying to teach people about being able to do these things yourself, being able to use these simple products instead of having to support big box companies, you can either do it yourself or you can support a local small business.”“We want to bring that forward and showcase the variety of people that actually are in this area and the history in the making,” Bridges said.