Running a three-day festival

  I apologize for having neglected my blog for the past month. I have been organizing Celebrate the Siskiyou Crest, a three-day festival of art, science, and culture, which took place last weekend.

    I fell into the job at a meeting of the Siskiyou Crest Coalition last fall when someone (I was told it was I) suggested an art show to bring attention to the Crest, since it is the goal of the Coalition to find ways to protect the public lands on the Siskiyou Crest. I enthusiastically suggested adding a day of poetry readings from local poets. Someone else suggested having panels of scientists speaking about the ecology of the Crest. The whole thing mushroomed. Keynote speakers. Well-known musicians. A day of hikes on the Crest. Everything free to the public.

    But no one was saying, "I'll organize it." If it were going to happen, someone would have to do that, so I said, "Okay. I'll do it." 

    Actually, though, I didn't organize everything. Someone took over the science part. Two people found business sponsors. Someone organized the art show. Someone coordinated the venue and found food trucks. Someone organized a raffle. Someone organized a reception for donors and participants. We wanted tribal participation, so someone secured a traditional ecologist from the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians as a speaker. 

    I wrote a grant proposal from the Carpenter Foundation. I worked on the art show. I wrote press releases and secured donated lodging for out-of-town participants. I asked David Rains Wallace, author of the award-winning book The Klamath Knot, to be our keynote speaker. I created a schedule of events and, in general, acted as coordinator and point person.

    To my horror, it fell to me to see that we had no tech problems.  It was a steep learning curve, but between the tech help at the public library and the folks at Best Buy, I learned. 

    In the end, it was all a huge success. Lots of people. Lots of excitement. Our food trucks bailed on us, but everyone stayed cheerful, and the snacks booth did a great business. We got great press coverage, including three articles in the Oregonian.

    Our goal had been to raise awareness about the special nature of the Siskiyou Crest—its amazing biodiversity, its special flora and fauna, its recreational opportunities (all those hiking trails!), and its beauty, which is both inspiration to artists and poets and economically important to the valley's wineries and other businesses. My sister Sharon, who came from Georgia to be at the festival, indicated the success of that goal when she told me, before she left for home, "Now I understand why you love this place so much."