By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Lead Reporter - Salina Post
Salina's first park transformed for the Smoky Hill River Festival weekend, with the familiar Oakdale covered by the colorful world of the 48th festival.
The murmur of more than 150 musical and artistic performances across three stages greeted thousands of visitors as they walked across Oakdale Park's decorated bridges.
Outside the stages sat seemingly endless rows of exhibiting artists, selling their work created anywhere from down the road in town to states away.
Even through two severe storm warnings and dozens of broken pieces of artwork, many visitors took home one-of-a-kind handmade items. Many visitors said, "It wouldn't be the festival without some rain!" which many Kansas visitors seemed accustomed to.
Although rain, wind and small hail cut the SM Hanson Festival Jam short, bands continued performing throughout the weekend. Don Wagner & Friends, the fourth of 17 groups, was the last band to play at Festival Jam.
Festival Jam Bands
Those who had the chance to perform before the storm hit town included Salina South Jazz Band, Visual Lies, Downtown Funk and Don Wagner & Friends.
Lix, King Tones, Fed Up, Hey Radio, Soul Preachers, Drop Everything, Kyndred, HyWay 14, Bootleg Mercy, Dunebuggy, Love Like War, Steve Hanson & Co. and The Blades missed their chance to play in front of the festival crowd.
Oakdale Park reopened the following day at 10 a.m., with Jane Anderson, the executive director of the Friends of the River Foundation, parading a young YMCA class around the park alongside their Smoky Hill River puppet crew.
As the young class paraded around the park, they saw sights of aspiring fiber artists using a loom for the first time, bands from across the country playing on the festival stages and artists selling their works to customers.
Nashville-based band Wildermiss was one of the 151 performances that entertained the Smoky Hill River Festival crowds.
"Our booking agent said, 'You should play this,' and we said, 'Yeah, we should!' and so it worked out because it's kind of the beginning of our tour," said Wildermiss lead singer Emma Cole. "I feel like [our sound] has a little bit of everything; with this last album we released, so much of it is touching on ethereal, ambient with indie, alternative rock, and then some bubble gum pop with some moody, heavy hitting ruby disco."
Cultivating creativity — a unique space for the youth
Artyopolis decorated the western edge of Oakdale Park, a space catered to inspiring creativity for young festival attendees.
LISTEN: 🎙King in the Community Podcast — Susan Eberwein, Artyopolis coordinator
Just north of Artyopolis and Arty's Stage, the exclusive First Treasures welcomed only children ages 4 to 13 to enter and purchase a piece of artwork without parental influence.
"It's a good opportunity for them because it allows kids to explore their imagination and do different things themselves," said Haley Beebe, a Salina resident attending the festival. "And [I got] to know what they like and don't like."
Beebe took Leah Smith, 13, and Edison Beebe, 7, this year to the First Treasures pavilion, where each purchased a piece of artwork donated by festival vendors for $5 or less.
"I love art, especially stuff similar to that [the painting she chose from First Treasures], and I think it's so amazing," Leah said. "It inspires me."
This year was Leah's first encounter with First Treasures, while Edison attended the event for the first time last year.
Smoky Hill River Festival volunteers helped children navigate the experience and provided information about the artists who created the artwork they purchased.
"It's a good experience," Beebe said. "We went and saw his [Edison's] artist and got to take a picture with them."
Inspiration from the creative process
Underneath the cool shade of an Oakdale Park pavilion, seven art and craft artists chatted with customers while creating new jewelry pieces, wooden utensils, ceramic pots and more.
This year, the Art and Craft Demonstrating Artists included Julie Cates from Salina, Vaughn Evans from Linwood, Tracey Musselwhite from Salina, Nicholas Pahls from Salina, Amethyst Sankey and Pam Pentico from Salina, Liz Bonney from Lawrence and Eleanor Carlson from Blue Rapids.
Throughout the festival, each artist demonstrated how they created their handmade items, answered questions for curious attendees and walked aspiring artists through different steps of their processes.
Musselwhite is a science teacher at Coronado Elementary in town but has enjoyed pottery since childhood and continues the practice today.
"I've had several students come through here, and some of them didn't realize that I did this," Musselwhite said. "They take such an interest in it, and I love seeing the kids excited about art."
Close by, with a small torch in hand, Carlson demonstrated her process of making jewelry with precious metals and gemstones of varying shapes.
Carlson said she attended Fort Hays State University in western Kansas and participated in a national student exchange program at Rhode Island College, where she learned most of her silversmithing skills.
"I paid Fort Hays prices to go to Rhode Island College for a year, and that was fantastic," Carlson said. "That's where I learned a lot of my silver smithing and general introduction to fine metal smithing."
Once she returned from Rhode Island College, she discovered that Fort Hays did not have much support for fine metal smithing, but a sculpture professor strove to provide Carlson with a creative space.
"[Professor Toby Flores] did a great job of giving me a little corner in the studio, and I got to do jewelry work as much as I wanted," Carlson said. "I got to explore many different things and cast a lot of bigger bronze and iron things... and just had an amazing experience."
Carlson said she now renovated a part of her home for her jewelry studio in Blue Rapids, where she creates jewelry to sell at festivals and other vendor events.
Click the arrows on the left and right of the window above to see photos from the 2024 Smoky Hill River Festival.
Concluding another Smoky Hill River Festival
On Sunday, June 16, eager attendees entered the park to attempt to find a glass Round-Tuit created by festival demonstrating artist Vaughn Evans. Children raced between bushes to look for the sparkling ember glass pieces inscribed with a bee on the bottom.
After attendees found a Round-Tuit, they could visit Evans at the demonstration pavilion to ask questions and view his other artwork.
Throughout the festival, other artists painted facilities of Oakdale Park, wrapped trees with colorful crocheted pieces by local high school students and the roaming Flint Hill Fairies and their thrum of cheerful music.