Festival blooms soon
Published: Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Updated: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 12:03
The 10th annual Festival on the Green will be held March 26-27 at the University of West Florida's main campus. The hours will be noon to 5 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
It will be free and open to the public.
"The overall festival itself kicks off with the Honors Convocation, which is one of the venues for the festival," said Jeff Comeau, festival chairman and assistant director for the Office of Human Resources.
The convocation will be held in front of the John C. Pace Library entrance on Friday at 11 a.m. to recognize students, faculty and staff for academic excellence, leadership, teaching and service.
The festival will feature 20 venues, including outdoor food vendors, arts and crafts produced and sold by regional vendors and a juried show featuring paintings, jewelry and pottery.
There will also be a time portal to the past, which will show re-enactments from different periods in Pensacola's past. The portal to the past will include presentations and appearances by the UWF Archaeology Institute and West Florida Historic Preservation, Inc.
Comeau said that the festival started as a project of a UWF leadership development program. The campus LEAD class of 2000 put together a concept and presented it to the University president's cabinet, which accepted it enthusiastically, and the first festival was held in 2001, he said.
"We looked at some concepts that were put in place in the early ‘80s," Comeau said. "That was a very small version of the festival in which they had a little bit of music from one of the University bands and a small outdoor event."
Comeau said that the festival was not on the same scale of what it is now. "It didn't feature most of the things that we do now, with the exception of the art," he said.
This year, a new event featuring a time portal to the future will include tours of the new UWF School of Science and Engineering. A flight simulator will feature tactical wars and battles for a $5 fee.
In addition, Festival on the Green will include a tennis tournament featuring matches between men's and women's teams from UWF and Valdosta State, Delta State and other colleges. Also included will be a library book sale, dog agility show and a motorcycle show.
Various groups of motorcyclists will be coming in and giving some safety demonstrations, and then basically a motorcycle show to show people some of the latest and the greatest and older ones as well," Comeau said.
A children's festival, another venue, will be held on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"It's got tons of events, and some of the things featured there are previews of summer programs that UWF offers young people in our region," Comeau said.
The children's festival will include games, activities, face paintings and appearances by Ronald McDonald and Uncle Sandy's MaCaws, a bird show that features exotic birds.
Comeau said that the festival will be spread out all over campus. "We'll have trolleys going around helping people get from one spot to the next," he said.
The festival will also feature off-the-green events such as the alumni award celebration at the Commons Conference Center, a jazz fest at the downtown Pensacola historic Seville Square, and a student art show at the UWF Center for Fine and Performing Arts.
"I'm thinking this is the best entertainment lineup that we've ever had," he said. For more information about the event, visit uwf.edu/festival or call 850-474-3000.
http://www.thevoyager.net/entertainment/festival-blooms-soon-1.2199928
It will be free and open to the public.
"The overall festival itself kicks off with the Honors Convocation, which is one of the venues for the festival," said Jeff Comeau, festival chairman and assistant director for the Office of Human Resources.
The convocation will be held in front of the John C. Pace Library entrance on Friday at 11 a.m. to recognize students, faculty and staff for academic excellence, leadership, teaching and service.
The festival will feature 20 venues, including outdoor food vendors, arts and crafts produced and sold by regional vendors and a juried show featuring paintings, jewelry and pottery.
There will also be a time portal to the past, which will show re-enactments from different periods in Pensacola's past. The portal to the past will include presentations and appearances by the UWF Archaeology Institute and West Florida Historic Preservation, Inc.
Comeau said that the festival started as a project of a UWF leadership development program. The campus LEAD class of 2000 put together a concept and presented it to the University president's cabinet, which accepted it enthusiastically, and the first festival was held in 2001, he said.
"We looked at some concepts that were put in place in the early ‘80s," Comeau said. "That was a very small version of the festival in which they had a little bit of music from one of the University bands and a small outdoor event."
Comeau said that the festival was not on the same scale of what it is now. "It didn't feature most of the things that we do now, with the exception of the art," he said.
This year, a new event featuring a time portal to the future will include tours of the new UWF School of Science and Engineering. A flight simulator will feature tactical wars and battles for a $5 fee.
In addition, Festival on the Green will include a tennis tournament featuring matches between men's and women's teams from UWF and Valdosta State, Delta State and other colleges. Also included will be a library book sale, dog agility show and a motorcycle show.
Various groups of motorcyclists will be coming in and giving some safety demonstrations, and then basically a motorcycle show to show people some of the latest and the greatest and older ones as well," Comeau said.
A children's festival, another venue, will be held on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"It's got tons of events, and some of the things featured there are previews of summer programs that UWF offers young people in our region," Comeau said.
The children's festival will include games, activities, face paintings and appearances by Ronald McDonald and Uncle Sandy's MaCaws, a bird show that features exotic birds.
Comeau said that the festival will be spread out all over campus. "We'll have trolleys going around helping people get from one spot to the next," he said.
The festival will also feature off-the-green events such as the alumni award celebration at the Commons Conference Center, a jazz fest at the downtown Pensacola historic Seville Square, and a student art show at the UWF Center for Fine and Performing Arts.
"I'm thinking this is the best entertainment lineup that we've ever had," he said. For more information about the event, visit uwf.edu/festival or call 850-474-3000.
http://www.thevoyager.net/entertainment/festival-blooms-soon-1.2199928
No comments:
Post a Comment