Lotus in the Park provides crafts, food and family fun

Lotus in the Park was just another example where the Lotus Festival provided audiences a day filled with music from around the world in celebration of Lotus Dickey.

The event kicked off on Saturday at the Waldron, Hill and Buskirk Park and was free.

Sponsored by the Bloomington Entertainment and Arts District, Lotus in the Park featured performances from local and global artists and had participatory workshops for visitors.

Besides the music, attendees enjoyed arts and crafts at the Art Camp, engulfed themselves in local Bloomington foods from restaurants like Nick’s English Hut, and joined the Hudsucker Posse in hula hooping.

At the Lotus Dickey Song Workshop, IU alumnus Nancy McEntire explained how Lotus Dickey is the reason Lotus Fest exists today.

In 1980, McEntire was working as a folklorist at the Spring Mill State Park when a former student told her about a man he found named Lotus Dickey who sang, played the fiddle and guitar and wrote his own music. He insisted McEntire meet him.

When struggling to find upcoming, respectable folklore music, McEntire gave it a shot.

After following a windy dirt road leading to a log cabin without electricity — and eight hours after hearing Dickey play all original songs — McEntire knew what she had to do.

“I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I’ve got to let people know about Lotus,’” McEntire said.

She brought Dickey to Bloomington so he could express his music, and she felt she needed to “introduce the world to Lotus Dickey,” McEntire said.

While Dickey had once been living a life of solitude in a small log cabin in a rural southern Indiana town, he was now meeting people and learning about music from all over the world.

McEntire remained close with Dickey for the remainder of his life. When he died in 1989, he told McEntire he wanted her to publish his songs. The Lotus Dickey Songbook was created in celebration of his music.

In memory of Dickey’s music, Lotus in the Park offered live performances of artists and bands from Quebec, Poland and Bloomington.

One of these bands was Mr. Taylor & His Dirty Dixie Band, a Dixieland band based heavily in New Orleans jazz from the early 1900s.

Based in Bloomington, the band consists of six IU Jacobs School of Music students including Benjamin Taylor, Justin Knapp, Victor Ribadeneyra, Otis Cantrell, Douglas Olenik and Bridget Leahy.

Other artists included the French Canadian group De Temps Antan from Quebec, who focus on Quebecois traditional music, and Janusz Prusinowski Trio from Poland, who play primarily Polish village music.

Ghanaian xylophonist and experienced music educator Bernard Woma led a hands-on participatory workshop in which audience members joined in and learned about instruments and music from Ghana.

The T.C. Steele State Historic Site from Nashville, Ind., held an Art Camp where participants could make world handcrafts with the Mathers Museum of World Cultures.
 
Felipe Velázquez from Mexico City, Mexico, has been bringing his family to Lotus Fest every year for the past 12 years.

“It’s a fun, safe place, and it’s great for the family,” Velázquez said.

Founded in March 2009, the hula-hooping Hudsucker Posse, based in Bloomington, held a demonstration.

Graduate student and Posse member Stephanie Poppe said she enjoys helping people learn tricks with the hoops.

“Hooping is a great exercise and a great way to connect with yourself and your body,” Poppe said.

Though Dickey wasn’t at the festival, McEntire acknowledged his presence.
She said she feels 20 years after the first Lotus Fest, “His spirit is still here.”

Follow reporter Alexandra Mahoney on Twitter @Al_Mahone.