Floyd recently got a big time write up in the National Endowment for the Arts magazine. The other articles in the November 2011 issue were about the Telluride Film Festival and summer theater festivals in the Berkshires. Heady but strange competition for "A Place Out of Time:Virginia's FloydFest is Where the Music Pops".
One of the things that makes FloydFest so super intriguing is the eclectic Blue Ridge Mountains location. People caravan in expectant of great music; but the unbelievably beautiful mountaintop location is many times a welcome surprise. Festival founder Kris Hodges attributes a lot of success of FloydFest to the fertile artistic soil inherent to Floyd County. "The community supports people with fresh ideas and living. Since it was first settled, it has had such a strong foundation of creativity that it really affords the opportunity to create your own life."
His wife, co-founder Erika Johnson elaborates "With the Appalachian musicians, organic farmers, potters, timber framers, yurt makers, midwives, and even a doctor who does house calls and runs a barter clinic, you really do have a place out of time, where the outside world doesn't dictate how people live, think, or create. We pride ourselves on having a unique haven from the rest of the world. And we were able to take FloydFest into this mix and represent that."
So, on this first real blustery cold day of winter, I am pining for the warmest days of the year which usually surround the week of FloydFest. But just like we Floydians don't do things quite like the rest of the world, we also do summer on Floydtime and with a Floyd thermostat set at about ten to fifteen degrees cooler than the rest of Southwest VA.
PS have you checked out the 2012 festival line-up? Ahhhh....a welcome summertime musing for another blustery winter day.
http://www.floydfest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/cover_2011_thumb-300x290.jpg
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