Tent and Shade Art Projects Hip Hop in Graffiti

J.J. Graves, also known by his stage name as DJ BearFoot, performs at the BRAVO Day Party! Saturday afternoon at the Smoky Hill River Festival. [ALLEIGH WEEMS / SALINA JOURNAL]

Sunday was a good day to enjoy the finale of the 47th almanac Smoky Hill River Festival.

All 4 stages had great acts from xi a.m. to about iv p.m. The KU Brazilian Steel Drum Ring played only Sunday on Eric Stein Phase. The fine arts and arts and crafts booths were open up and artists were selling.

At that place were noticeably fewer people in Oakdale Park than the almost xx,000 who attended Saturday. The lawn in front end of Eric Stein Phase was more often than not empty of beach umbrellas and blankets. Lines in forepart of fifty-fifty the most pop food vendors were short at noon.

Sunday'south omnipresence was 5,553. The unofficial total for the unabridged festival was 56,784, according to Brad Anderson, executive manager of Salina Arts & Humanities. He said the final numbers could exist changed.

The north cease of the park, though, was popular for the younger at heart.

High-sounding's Stage offered Drum Safari and Mr. Kneel Hip Hop for Families for kids to get the beat.

On n past High-sounding'south Stage was the Bravo Stage, which featured local and regional acts. Information technology was gear up to concenter young professionals, said Brad Anderson, executive director of Salina Arts and Humanities, which organizes the festival.

He said he was happy to see it doing well because that's where the next decades of festivalgoers volition come from.

"Over the past 2 or 3 years, nosotros've fabricated concerted effort to showcase diverse types of music," said greenbacks hollistah., a member of the festival's entertainment committee. "While focusing on local and regional artists," added CJ Hammon, Bravo stage director.

"Nosotros know Bravo is a well-kept surreptitious, but we don't like that tag," hollistah. said.

Special teen area

Bravo Stage hosted a Block Stone on Friday evening, Hammon said, "different kinds of stone music, not what you would hear on the Eric Stein Phase."

Some played ska, some culling and punk stone. Big Red Horse combined Janis Jopin-style vocals with blues and hard stone, she said.

Sabbatum afternoon was the 2nd BRAVO Day Party. Kids were dancing to performances by six acts from all over Kansas and Oklahoma, with DJ BearFoot as the DJ, from 3 p.m on, hollistah. said.

That role of the park was designed to attract the younger crowd with more than just music. Graffiti creative person Scribe finished his landscape, "Friends for Life," on Sun morning time.

"Graffiti is part of hip-hop," hollistah. said, "It's not just music."

The mural will exist hung in the Salina Animate being Shelter, but on Sun, kids were lining up in front of it to have their photos snapped on cellphones.

Taking it in

Elsewhere in the park, Artyopolis was booming with games and crafts and face painting.

Ainslee Plante, iii, of Salina, was thinking virtually perchance having her face painted after lunch. She was eating lo mein noodles — just the noodles, no craven or vegetables — with her aunt, Jessica Gravatt, and Kyle Jensen, both of Salina.

Gravatt said Ainslee had played at the park, where she fabricated some new friends, and had been dancing to the rock beat of Papa Green Shoes on Stage II.

Melissa Huninghake, of Salina, came to look at the art Lord's day considering she'd had to work this weekend. She purchased a photograph of harvest fourth dimension in Nemaha County. It reminded her of her male parent, who was from Nemaha County, she said.

Festival weekend

A grouping of six friends, on the other hand, fabricated the unabridged festival weekend. Karl Skinner, of Lincoln, Neb., said he and iii friends collection downwardly Thursday for his second festival. They were staying with artist David Olson and Carla Moore.

Skinner said it was an "annual pilgrimage" since his partner, Scott Graybeal, introduced him to it.

He said he was surviving the heat, with temperatures over 100, by finding "strategic shade and cold beverages."

He said he didn't know of a festival in Lincoln similar to the Smoky Colina River Festival.

"It'south extensive," he said.

"It's the sense of community," Olson said, "especially the sense of community with music and and the arts. It'due south a manner to continue current."