PROGRAM GUIDE Insane Wanderer VOL I Series VOL II VOL III VOL IV WWW.COLUMBUSBREWING.COM COMFEST.COM COMMUNITY FESTIVAL 2018 3 Welcome to ComFest 2018 WHAT’S INSIDE? Welcome to ComFest! You're participating in what is either a dated Welcome ........................................................ 3,4 relic of the 1960s maintained by a bunch of aging radicals and hippies, Festival Rules .................................................... 5 or an open and generous celebration of how a community respects the differences of its members. Or maybe even something else. Theme/Slogan - Stand Together ......................... 7 The answer may depend on your implicit biases and what you want a Who We Are - ComFest 365 ............................... 8 festival to be. ComFest Principles/Meeting Schedule ............... 9 ComFest began in 1972 as Community Festival, an artistic and Honored Community Activist .............................11 political celebration of alternatives to mainstream culture. It grew from an early coalition of counter-cultural organizations—food co-op, health Educate Advocate Vote ......................................13 center, tenants union, underground newspaper, and phone information Honored Community Organization ...................15 center—addressing needs not being met by the larger culture. Working Volunteer Center/Field Guide ...........................17 with owners of small businesses such as import and clothing stores, Volunteer Thank Yous ................................18 - 22 ceramic artists, head shops, and jewelers, the group organized a two-day festival at 16th & Waldeck in the OSU area. Community Organizations ............................... 22 The principles around which the coalition organized remain the Spirit & Purpose/ComFest Museum .................. 23 guiding ideals of ComFest (read them on page 9). They define the festival's Workshop Schedule ......................................... 24 continuing focus on progressive social change. Special Speakers ............................................ 25 The five years preceding the first festival were some of the most tumultuous in the 20th century, and it's worth considering the insights Workshop Highlights................................... 26-28 and lessons nearly half a century can provide. Fifty years ago, 1968 Honored Artist ................................................ 29 was a pivotal year in American politics and culture, and there are some Honored Volunteer ........................................... 30 similarities with 2018. Grants ............................................................. 31 Student protests. Military actions abroad. Attacks on civil rights. Police abuses. White supremacists. Increasing drug use. Black athletes Fun Map ..................................................... 32-33 protesting discrimination. Environmental devastation. Seismic changes in Stage Schedules.....................34-35, 38-39, 42-43 the status and power of women. Clean-up & Recycling ....................................... 36 Broad coalitions of groups addressing varied issues (what some called Merch-in-Teer ................................................... 40 The Movement) created a powerful image that inspired many to be part of something larger than themselves. Yes, there was friction and often Libations ......................................................... 44 conflict. But an ideal larger than Self—compassion? love?—compelled KiDSART/Kid Friendly Performances ............46-47 people to see their own humanity in the pain and struggles of others, and Logo Contest .................................................... 48 to take responsibility for others and take up the work necessary to create Street Fair/Sculptures...................................... 49 change. Poet Rebecca Baggett wrote, “...anyone who notices the world / must want to save it.” These people noticed. Honored Volunteers ..............................30, 51, 53 Community Food ............................................. 55 Love is a long, long road In Memoriam .............................................57, 58 —Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Parking/Bike Corral/Respect the Park ............. 59 "Love Is a Long Road" Leave Your Dog At Home/ComFest Comedy ......61 We’re in a comparable historic moment (in which truth itself is under First Aid/Poetry............................................... 62 attack by a major political party). Given the Trump administration's tax Heads Up Information ..................................... 64 breaks for millionaire friends and businesses, limits on health care, and corporate appointees trashing crucial government departments that affect ComFest™ is a registered trademark all of us, it’s not a stretch to see 2018 as a reboot of 1968's "Night of the of Community Festival, Inc Living Dead." comfest.com 4 COMMUNITY FESTIVAL 2018 COMFEST.COM The momentum of women who have driven #MeToo activities. These acts reinforce our interdependence. and brave #NeverAgain students shows the power of When we see others’ well-being as part of our own, we unified action to shape social change. Yet the diversity build community. of progressive groups makes them highly susceptible to This sharing in determining our lives is a sharing of division and alienation. It is easy for small differences our lives. It is the foundation of democracy. “Peace and to become battle lines. But our differing approaches to love” is less a piece of easy snark than it is a description tactics do not make us enemies. Our passion for justice of a worthy, attainable goal and the admittedly difficult can become the passion of anger born of frustration. means for getting there. Benjamin Franklin noted during the American Revolution, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most Gonna stand side by side assuredly we will all hang separately.” Our hearts in command We must, as this year's ComFest slogan says, Stand Love as our guide Together. If we do this, we can find ways to realize that —Mavis Staples each of us is a work-in-progress and that no individual or "We Go High" group has a monopoly on truth. In a time when many show understanding of gender Much of what ComFest's founders agitated for has fluidity and ambiguity, we often lose sight of nuance and become mainstream, but the forces created and unearthed retreat into binary thinking about issues—an either/or by the 2016 election have made clear that there is plenty approach that denies the complicated nature of problems still to be done: confronting racism, opposing militarism, and undermines real progress. Like gender identity, protecting public lands and the environment, resisting political issues are painfully complex and frequently don't attacks on health care, preserving reproductive rights, have simple definitions or solutions. and developing laws and coherent programs to replace a Working for incremental change through compromise system geared to the benefit of the few. is not selling out; actively confronting power structures is ComFest is grounded in the idea that people with not an attack on allies. Our differences are not betrayals, widely varying lifestyles and beliefs—humanity—can and they're not failures of commitment to whatever cause co-exist in harmony and struggle together to build a is at issue. They are a manifestation of the difficult reality community that emphasizes tolerance, peace, and social that we are complex creatures continually weighing our justice. What you see around you is a partial realization personal needs against those of larger social entities. of that idea. Maintaining it, in fact and philosophy, is a Building and sustaining a community takes work group project. that includes both struggle and celebration. ComFest This is not complicated. Become an active part of combines these elements as part of the multi-dimensional ComFest: volunteer, together with friends. Then make nature of lives that acknowledge the political in the your voice heard, not just on Facebook or Twitter, but personal. in the streets, in your neighborhood—together. Take Civil society is built by interacting with neighbors, action. Vote. Look for what needs to be done. Then do it. doing good work (regardless of status), patronizing Together. small businesses, joining others in common endeavors, participating in church, community, political, and sports —Steve Abbott • Edited by Mimi Morris, Steve Abbott, Michael Gruber • Design and Layout by Michael Gruber, Jonathan Johns, David Browning • Illustrations by Paul Volker and Jodi Kushins - Fun Map by Max Ink & Flor de Canela - www.maxinkcomix.com. • Photos by Michael Gruber, Michael Weber, Meghan Ralston, M.V. Huhn, Ian C. Powell, Michelle Cadwell, Kristen Suszek, Rachel Barbash, Ying Chien • 2017 ComFest logo design by Laura Bova • Writers: Michael Weber, Mimi Morris, Leslie Zak, David Breithaupt Harry Farkas, Shanna Harrell, Connie Everett, Marty Stutz, Curt Schieber • Printed at The Athens Messenger • Distribution by Jim McNamara, Jim & Alice Irwin, Jodi Kushins, Harry Farkas • All photos copyrighted by the photographers • ComFest TM is a registered trademark of Community Festival, Inc. COMFEST.COM COMMUNITY FESTIVAL 2018 5 IMPORTANT FESTIVAL RULES NOTE: No coolers, please. Don't leave backpacks unattended. Bags & coolers subject to being checked. • No bottles or cans/NO BYOB. No glass of any kind. • Please follow all federal, state, county, city, Ohio Dept. of Commerce Division of Liquor Control laws. • No weapons of any kind are allowed at the event.