Co-editors/Writers.
Cathy Riely
Walter Smith
Photographer Bill Hughes
at ease
The Battalion’s Entertainment Weekly
August 2,1985
Texans explore roots at festival
By WALTER SMITH
Co-editor
I F THE BLINDING PACE OF THE
technocratic world has got you
down, then put your microwave
dinner back into your frost-free re
frigerator and relenquish the remote
control to your VCR. Now escape
into the simplicity of Texas' cultural
past at the Texas Folklife Festival in
San Antonio this weekend.
The annual festival, sponsored by
The University of Texas Institute of
Texan Cultures, was organized 14
years ago to expose the public to the
diverse ethnic, cultural and folk his
tory of the state. An expected crowd
of 100,000 will have visited the four-
day festival when the gates close
this Sunday.
With so many people, parking
could pose a hectic problem, espe
cially because of limited parking
areas in downtown San Antonio.
But Charlene Blohm, a spokesman
for the festival, says that visitors can
park their cars at the major shop
ping malls around San Antonio and
take a $1 bus ride to the festival
grounds at the HemisFair Plaza.
About 6,000 participants, rep
resenting about 30 cultures, will dis
play their crafts, music, dance and
ways of life. The festival is divided
into several zones, each hosting dif
ferent cultures and activities.
"Almost any skill imaginable that
was necessary at the beginning of
settling Texas is represented," says
John McGiffert, acting executive di
rector of the Institute of Texan Cul
tures. Continuous entertaiment is
scheduled for each of the ten stages
scattered around the festival, but im
promptu activities and shows are
liable to pop up just about any
where.
O NCE THERE, VISITORS
will notice that the ambi
ence of the different cultures
isn't the only thing filling the air. Just
the mere aroma of the many culi
nary delights might launch you on a
gastronomical quest to try some of
each culture's cuisine. Foods like
Belgian waffles, Irish stew, apple
strudel and brod og palegg (a
Norwegian open-face sandwich)
will give you a taste of Europe, while
khal-bee (broiled short rib), egg
rolls, chech chean (a Cambodian
fried banana) and yakitori will let
you sample the Oriental food fare.
More traditional staples, like pop
corn,. peanut brittle, onion rings and
lemonade, will be available for the
less adventurous eaters.
Food coupons, instead of U.S. cur
rency, are used to purchase the rea
sonably priced food dishes. Each
coupon is worth twenty cents and
the most expensive item, Cajun
Shrimp Gumbo, costs only 12 cou
pons ($2.40). Most foods are priced
between 6 and 10 coupons.
Food plays a significant part of
cultures, but so do the festival activ
ities and diversions. The festival has
an operating smokehouse where
you can learn how the early settlers
preserved meat before the invention
of the refrigerator. You can lend a
hand to the bakers as
they knead the
dough for- loaves
of bread or help
pluck a goose.
You can also
watch or help
out with chores
like spinning and
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS INSTITUTE
OF TEXAN CULTURES AT SAN ANTONIO
Filipino folk dances are just one of the activities at the Texas Folklife Fes
tival in San Antonio. Here, Karen Jaceldo of the Philippine Dance Ensem
ble celebrates the rites of courtship. The four-day festival ends Sunday.
weaving, sheep shearing or house
building. While many of us take the
roof over our heads and the clothes
on our backs for granted, the early
pioneers of Texas had to make both
ifrom scratch. Jo Ann Andera, festi
val director says that it is important
to keep practicing these kinds of ac
tivities.
"Some things just can't be written
in a book," she says. "They have to
be passed down."
Texas settlers worked hard, but
when they were through with their
work, they played even harder. Mu
sic and dancing played a large role
in pioneer Texas and the same holds
true for the festival. The rhythms,
harmonies and movements of the
different cultures will be highlighted
at the booths and stages across the
festival grounds.
D ancers with cultural
roots in lands as diverse as
Lebanon, Ireland, Greece
and the Philippines will perform in
their native colorful garb. About 100
musicians will bring a world-wide
selection of music to the festival —in
cluding swing, country and west
ern, bluegrass, gospel and jazz.
Various folk games, including Bel
gian pole climbing, horseshoe pitch
ing and bocce, helped to entertain
both adults and children, and will
be demonstrated at the festival. The
youngsters in the crowd can ride a
horse-drawn wagon to the farm
yard, which is really a petting zoo.
Frontier Playland will show them
the joys of whittling, kite making and
other pioneer childrens' pastimes.
But frontier children played only af
ter their chores (watch them quilt
and make candles) and schooling
(the festival has a one-room school
house, complete with a bell and
master).
If you don't want to re-live the
frontier days yourself, then you can
sit in on a session of master storytel
ling by some of the older partici
pants. Ed Bell of Luling, better
known as "one of the biggest liars on
the Texas coast," entertained some
of last year's festival visitors With a
yarn about a guy who caught a
huge fish:
"They hqd to quit fishing and
come in because they wasn't no
room for anybody to fish after they
laid that fish on the deck. So they
went on into port, and when they got
there, why he says, 'Well, I've got to
have this fish weighed. People'll
never believe if I don't have it
weighed on some public scales.'
(But) they couldn't even find any
scales. The public scale wouldn't
even start to weigh him. And he was
cussing and raising Cain; he said,
'Man, I've just got to get evidence
see FEST on page 2.