The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #113341   Message #2418195
Posted By: Barbara Shaw
19-Aug-08 - 08:04 PM
Thread Name: Philly Folk Fest 2008
Subject: RE: Philly Folk Fest 2008
Hmmm, I had to think awhile and replay some of the scenes from the festival to remember if anyone was non-white. Wasn't particularly aware of any race, which may just be me, although I would have surely noticed if I was the only white person. After some thought, I remembered that one of our neighbors in the camping area was a black woman married to a white man. We actually spent quite a bit of time chatting with them one day, and now that I think of it she had said that her mother was from France and the family had spent a month's vacation in Africa last year, which brought to the front of my consciousness that she was black.

We did catch some of the sacred steel band, which was basically rock, billed as an African-American sacred steel ensemble. I think I took a photo of them -one of those in the distance you can't make out, probably. Let's see, I did notice one or two black children with white mothers and one or two Asian children with white mothers. Also a few Asian families and a few black families. (I always notice the kids). The ukelele soloist was Hawaiian, I believe. There was a middle-aged black woman at the instrument booth when I stopped there, telling the proprietor that she suddenly discovered she needed a banjo in her life! (I wanted to warn her to back away slowly from the booth...) Can't recall any Hispanics, although there may have been some.

These are little tidbits culled from many, many faces and scenes over the weekend. Probably signifying that there were some but not many non-whites at the festival.