Hemlock Spring Historic Crafts & Cultural Arts Center proudly presents the

June 13, 2009

Mission Statement: This is to be a young people’s celebration
in a festive atmosphere of the arts and fantasy in nature.

    We are encouraging everyone to come in costume as either a woodland or fairy character. Create a personality for your character. The festival designer runway will give you the opportunity to make the character come alive. Custom workshops will be scheduled prior to the festival to assist individuals in the design process.

    Musical magic will reverberate on the mountain, as Hemlock Springs is a natural amphitheatre. Music can create a sense of place based on imagination. We are seeking talented musician volunteers to entertain in the mountain realm. Do you know of any persons or group? Please contact us with their information!

    The purpose of the festival is to bring out the artist in each person by exposing them to the natural world that many have not experienced. Disconnection from nature has enormous implications which we have the power to reverse. Our goal is to stimulate imagination and provide exposure to the natural world. One of the positive effects of involvement of the arts in natural surroundings is to develop a lifelong passion for stewardship of the earth. This is a fast disappearing opportunity we need to protect and pass on to the next generation. There is more to be discovered in a square inch of dirt than a child could ever imagine.

    Fairies and hobbits are protectors of the earth, but they also represent many facets of the arts. The arts can be powerful tools that can awaken awesome wonders. Could that be a fairy habitat in the hollows neatly tucked in trees, hidden in sight? Are they real? Perhaps they are! But even if they live only in the imagination, what better place could there be to live?

    The oral tradition of the storyteller will enable participants to capture a time past or glimpse a future yet to be discovered. Crafts will create the opportunity to make and take a memorable moment to cherish. A variety of artist’s mediums can be used to record images on paper as well as bark…images of tree faces, music of the wind or that of an insect pollinating a flower can leave with each person. There will be plenty of photo opportunities too – wildlife, flora, landscapes, and of course, you could be lucky enough to catch a fairy on film! The fairies and the hobbits are the tour guides. They provide the venue to create the magic. We invite you to help us with our creative venture. Please call and share your talents… or just your willing hands to make it happen. We need you!

The price of progress is a diminished life of the senses. Nature is about smelling, hearing, tasting and seeing below the transparent mucous paper in which the world is carefully wrapped! Much of our learning comes from doing, from making, from feeling with our hands and though many would like to believe otherwise, the world is not entirely available from a keyboard. For a whole generation, direct experience in the tool shed, in the fields and woods has been replaced by indirect learning through machines. Young people only need a taste, a sight, a sound or a touch to reconnect with nature. In natural play grounds, children invent. Green spaces like Hemlock Springs support healthy child development where literature, nature and dreams are forever linked. The most effective way to connect children to nature is to connect ourselves as adults to the natural world. Hemlock Springs was created to present this opportunity. We need to provide ways and find time to make nature a part of our everyday lives. Nature is an educational necessity, teaching both young and old about friendship, which is a theme of our permanent theatre production of the book "Lost in the Woods," taken from the book Lost Child in the Woods, Richard Loreu, 2005.

The Festival will be held at Hemlock Springs Historic Crafts & Cultural Arts Center in Keating Summit, Pa. For directions or more information about the Center, please visit www.hemlockscenter.org.

Please join us at the 2009 Woodland Hobbit and Fairy Festival – as a volunteer or participant. Bring your children. Bring your children’s children. Bring your imagination and sense of adventure and let the children discover theirs. We look forward to seeing you there! Presale tickets are offered at a discounted rate of $8 each for adults and $6 each for children. Tickets at the gate will be $10 each for adults or $8 each for children. For tickets, volunteer or vendor information please contact Jennifer Stambaugh at 814.545.1205 or email at jenniferstambaugh@jstambaugh.net.