Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival

For the last fifteen years, a grassroots festival of music and dance has been organized at Shakori Hills, part of the farming community of Silk Hope, North Carolina. Though I had heard much about it, I had never had the opportunity to attend until this year. The opening ceremony was in the afternoon of Thursday, May 4, 2017. Our preferred day was Saturday, but that was not possible due to a prior engagement (hint), and for our second choice, Friday, the weather forecast was pretty bad. We feared that attendance on Thursday would be very sparse, and this proved to be correct.

The people who performed during the opening ceremony were all very good: Cathy Brooksie and Amy Hall Durso of Trio Luna (I don't know what happened to Sheila Fleming), John Westmoreland, Gary Phillips, Django Haskins... they all would certainly have deserved a much larger audience. In the sixties, the festival would have been called a Happening with participants to match: hippies of all ages, champions of the environment and sustainability, proponents of honesty in politics (good luck!), peace advocates, in short, the kind of folks you can't help but think that the planet would be a better place if there were more of them.

We listen to great music, watched very interesting people, ate excellent food, admired beautiful arts and crafts, and wowed to be back, but not on opening day when there are simply not enough people to create the proper ambiance. We won't be in town for the fall session, but there's always the 2018 spring event!

Click on any image to see a larger (2100 x 1400 pixel) version!

There were some pretty interesting vehicles in the parking lot!	The ticket counter

One of the sales staff	Sign post	Silk Hope Line vehicle

Grassroots democracy	Wall hangings

Pottery	Glasswork

The smaller stage is almost ready	Excellent and refreshing water

Peace Park	In line with the Shakori Hills philosophy

Camp site	Probably regular attendees

Waiting for the music to start	Waiting for the music to start

Vacuuming the stage	Testing the microphones

There are still very few people present	Two thirds of Trio Luna with a shruti box

Two thirds of Trio Luna	Guitarist John Westmoreland	Local poet Gary Phillips

Stopping for goodies	Younger visitors

6:30 p.m. on Thursday is still too early for most people	On the other hand, it's not too early for these guys

Django Haskins performing	A last look at the big stage

Opening ceremony video clip featuring most of Trio Luna, John Westmoreland, and Django Haskins

The photos and video on this page were taken on Thursday, May 4, 2017.

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