Today a dear friend advised me of an Arts Festival being held over the weekend in Tarpon Springs at Craig's Park on the Bayou. Doesn't that sound fantastic? Well, I thought so too so hubby & I careened on down there, finding a parking spot for $5, thanks the local Boy Scout Troop!
To quote the Chamber of Commerce: "This two-day festival has become one of Florida's premier juried art festivals and will feature over 240 artists from across the nation...one thing that makes this show so great is that there is something for everyone. Since this is a juried Festival, it is all fine art. Unlike many shows, much of our art, creations and jewelry are affordably priced. The venue couldn't be prettier, with the Festival wrapping around Spring Bayou and Craig Park. This is also manatee season in Tarpon Springs. Besides the crème de la crème of art, the Festival will ply you with a huge variety of food (yes, there will be kettle corn! and other strange and wondrous stuff you won't find in Canada), drinks and fabulous entertainment." www.tarponspringschamber.com
So whaddja buy, you wanna know? Well, a place like that is irrisistible to someone as weak-willed as me. But given our 39th wedding anniversary is rising over the horizon, it behooved me to plead for a few nice things: a lovely Swarofsky crystel bracelet (which I might never take off), 2 ugly but colourful fish to hang on the hot tub wall, a gift for a friend (this has to remain mysterious) AND a piece of cedar driftwood with 3 very bright red fish attached for the lanai I'll soon be renting or owning (or maybe not).
It was a very windy day which saw vendors hanging onto their tents, some in terror. I saw a very expensive work of glass in pieces at one vendor's tent. It was touch and go but everyone persisted, the gawkers showed up en masse, the music was rousing and the food and beer excellent. I'm so glad hubby was with me as there's no telling what else I would have come home with! I'll try to post pix soon.
We hurried home as the community was having a poolside picnic: free beer (who could resist?), hot dogs, hamburgers and salads! It was lovely and we socialized a lot with the many new friends we've made. The wind was still making his presence known by tossing chairs into the pool. We hope the M's of whom we're quite fond, will return again next year. It was all a little bittersweet as the coming weeks will see the snowbirds take to road and air to return to cooler climes.
Here's my ode to the Tarpon Springs Art Festival, that I may have the chance to revisit it!
White tents, white caps, all wind tossed
Tropic suggestions all painted, high gloss
Jewels, and treasures, and women agape
Men all quite bored; they dawdle, they wait
Imagination abounds, creativity too
How can so many things come in so many hues?
My eyes are like bees flitting flower to flower
How can colour, shape, glitter hold so much power
to mesmerize, tantalize, tranquilize, freeze?
Til credit cards shimmer like sin in the breeze.
And the Bayou is there to assuage your sore feet
It's waters a balm, its vistas so sweet
Come again to Craig Park and all its fine arts
Next year in the spring, when March departs.
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