The excitement surrounding this year's Dooryard Arts Festival is palpable. Everyone is waiting to see how it's going to go, because this year it's waaay bigger than any one person or stereotype. We've got rockers, we've got banjos, we've got violins, we've got paints, prints, kids, vendors, singers, songwriters, poets, body artists, knitters, potters, painters and writers. And more - really.
What excites me most about this festival is the variety - it's not just a rock fest for hipster teenagers. It's not another gospel concert with the same old tunes, or another fancy fine arts show. It's everything all mixed together, with everyone contributing in their own unique way. Even the "steering committee" isn't really steering this bus - Dean Weeks booked the Indie Night, Valley Young Company chose their production, musicians built new bands, and the excitement just keeps growing.
Don't get me wrong, we're readier than ever. But if you're looking for a genre typecast for this festival, you'd best keep rolling down the river. Because the only thing that really unifies this festival is our location - being here in (mostly) Carleton County, and having some form of individual or collective human expression. Expect the unexpected, expect to see, hear, taste, smell and even touch things you don't normally experience.
This is the wonderful thing about the arts: it takes us beyond our puny and often self-absorbed personal identities (I put myself in this category too, don't worry) and takes us somewhere else. Like trying that new dish at a potluck. You don't have to eat a plateful, but just try it, already. You might like it, and even if you don't, at least you will have experienced a little shred of personal growth. This is the stuff that life is made of.
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