A summer shower had passed when I turned into the Lowes parking lot in Kingsport. There were lots of cars too and when I saw the tents on the far side, I remembered Steve Bailey telling me last night at the Mardi Gras stage, he was running the stage tomorrow for a Fun Fest event called Globalfest.
Click here for all of the photos from that day…Saturday, July 15th, 2006
Before I begin, let me share the numbers because according to the last census;
Sullivan County Census Data from 2004
White persons – 96.5%
Black persons – 2.1%
Hispanic or Lation -0.8%
Asian – 0.5%
That would hardly classify as cultural diversity, but it’s different now than it was some twenty years ago. At that time, there was only a couple of chinese restaurants in town – like Joe Gong’s Restuarant (an old favorite). Today you can drive around the city and see a number of Mexican restaurants, Asian, Chinese and Japanese and Indian too. Migrant farming can be seen on any country drive here in the mountain farms of Eastern Tennessee and our community is changing colors.
That’s why GlobalFest is such a special event. I like Fun Fest, but the big crowds seem to make me weary these days and after attending and participating in the big events, I’ve found the smaller gatherings have a spirit all their own.
Unfortunately, the showers squashed a lot of the tent activity and when I arrived, the rain quickly boiled off the hot surface of the muggy parking lot and the temperature felt like a sticky 100 degrees. The tents were silent like the circus had left town, but in the far corner, I heard a lone voice singing a spiritual song before a respectfully quiet crowd.
Lucy Fleming and Judy Francisco, the Fun Fest Diva patrol were walking away and told me the sound system was damaged by the rain. She pointed to the shiny, pimped out black pickup that had the doors open and mentioned, “they’re using that truck stereo to provide the music.”
This woman was singing with her shining face in the late afternoon sun. There was no microphone and behind her two guys were riding the control knob of the stereo like the memphis mafia. The song seemed family, but before I could remember it, she was finished. It was a church crowd too because the amens and appalause were humble and proud.
Alan Faulkerson is evidently one of the coordinators of this event and after the gospel song he spoke with a resounding confidence that made me wonder if he was a preacher too, but evidently, he works for Lowes and is chair of this event. I don’t know him, but like many others, I believe this event has a lot of potential and although it might bring Lowes a few dollars, the event would be more successful if it was somewhere else other than a parking lot in the middle of July.
The small crowd of 50 or 60 that were still left this afternoon were Spanish, African, Hispanic, Irish…it was hard for me to determine the fullness of the diversity, but it was certainly different from most Fun Fest events.
To the left of the stage, I spotted several cuban dancers dressed in bright red and white dresses. It was a spectacular site in the bright grey concrete festival area, but Alan quickly introduce the dancers and for a moment, the heat and the curiosity about this event was whirling around with these vibrant smiling dancers. I had the camera and enjoyed every moment and like everyone else, couldn’t help but show our appreciation. Not only was it something new for me to experience, but the art and the passion of these dancers made appreciate this event more.
The GlobalFest was hampered by rain this year, but next year, I’ll make it a point to attend this show and might be interested in working with the new sponsors to relocate the event somewhere else and promote a great idea whose time has come to Fun Fest.