Thursday, November 19, 2009

Lennon Studio at Faerieworlds 2009!

Wow, so first I have to say I am amazed at how long it has been since I blogged, and now there is so much to catch up on that some may just have to fall by the wayside for now, since last I posted was before Faerieworlds!!! So a lot has happened since then, and I think I will have to break the posts down by events or months or something, because trying to cram almost 4 months of fun and excitement and visits to Faeryland in one post is just absurd! So first order of business is Faerieworlds. It was phenomenal despite the crazy insane heat and change of venue. I personally really liked the new venue, and the addition of on-site camping definitely made the experience that much more magical, pretty amazing to get to hang with all my COMFy folk at the COMFy kitchen and enjoy amazing food and fun and laughter with that whole gang. Above is a picture of me with Mermaid (founder of COMF) and her daughter Zoe in the opening spiral dance ceremony. One thing I really appreciate about the Faerieworlds and Faeriecon events is the ritual aspect of honoring faerie and the seasons, cannot think of a more magical way to celebrate Lughnassadh! And there was no shortage of faerie magic afoot at the new venue, and even the water sprites were able to join in the act since the event was bordered on one side by a river where many hot and sticky fae went to cool off, or enjoy a private moment. My river excursions were pretty intense and amazing... Now this Faerieworlds not only did we have the opening ceremony spiral dance, but the wonderful medieval folk music band Faun also had their own version of a spiral dance put to their song Andros... and with Faun having one daytime set and one nighttime set that made for two additional spiral dances, bringing it up to a triple spiral dance count. Lots of magic was woven that weekend. The line up of bands was stellar, of course everyone loves Woodland, and as has become tradition the COMFy folk had a little prank to play on them, during their third song we all secretly put on red clown noses (note you can still see some on in the above photo by Ash Martell) and the band was in stitches... very fun to see them all try to play their song with straight faces while a whole crowd of red nosed faeries are looking back at them. Faun was definitely a highlight for me, their music inspires me to dance and the crazy medieval instruments they play are a sight to behold. Dehli to Dublin was a fun and energetic group of musicians that blend tradition folk music from India and Ireland, definitely had the crowd flowing. Beats Antique put on a fabulous show with the legendary belly dancer Zoe Jakes wowing the crowd with her undulations and rhythm and fans, absolutely stunning and breathtaking. A personal favorite song from there set was an unreleased track at the time, a Mashup of Michael Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr. you can click on the link to download the track from them on bandcamp. One of the biggest highlights of the festival for me was that I got to perform both nights with Mythmaker a fire-dancing, stilt-walking, sacred theater troupe from Canada. This shot was taken at the Saturday night performance, photo credit goes to my friend Laume :-) Another highlight for me was getting photographed by amazing Celtic artist Jen Delyth as pictured below I was also forutnate to be photographed by Time Of the Fairies photographer Joseph Corsentino along with Time of the Fairies model Elizabeth Maxwell I guess my only complaints about Faerieworlds was it felt like it was over too soon, a moment of magic far too fleeting, and far off from repeating... till next year at Lughnassadh when we can all gather under the stars again.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

Looking good Katie! Must have been a great time in OR. And you got to share it with your daughter too!

We're working hard on our new website, to be launched next week (hopefully).
Happy Thanksgiving!

Jennifer and Paul

C Merry said...

One day I will get to FW until then so happy to have shared FC with you :)