PITTSBORO — Gilda McDaniel retains video games like “Mailbox Insanity” and “Fowl Shot” in her storage year-round. Dozens of painted picket creatures and bean baggage of varied shapes and colours are scattered across the video games.
Though she might appear to be a little bit of a hoarder, her storage is packed in preparation for sooner or later every year: ClydeFest.
“That day stays with me all 12 months,” McDaniel mentioned. “It is particular for lots of causes.”
McDaniel, who can be board chair of the Chatham Arts Council, has been serving to run the native family-friendly arts pageant for greater than 20 years, and her favourite day of the 12 months is quick approaching. The occasion, which this 12 months will happen on Saturday, April 22, brings collectively three of her favourite issues: her pricey good friend Clyde Jones—the pageant’s namesake—the Chatham Arts Council and Chatham County.
“The occasion is impressed by Clyde, whose motto has all the time been, ‘It is all concerning the youngsters,'” McDaniel mentioned.
Jones, she added, was the type of old school man who mentioned we should always return to “the times of horses and buggies.” He longed for the easy lifetime of the outside and wished kids to expertise the enjoyment of getting soiled whereas creating artwork. It was on this spirit that ClydeFest was born a few years in the past.
The occasion initially started when Jones approached the Chatham Arts Council to host a pageant for kids within the Bynum space. Since then, it has was a novel occasion for the district and the state. CAC attracts performers, artists and non-profit organizations from as distant as Georgia to take part within the festivities.
“Clyde is essentially the most open, sort and beneficiant individual,” mentioned McDaniel, who has been a detailed good friend of Jones’ for years. “That is actually the character of this occasion, it comes from the guts.”
Jones lately celebrated his 86th birthday on April 1 and plans to attend this 12 months’s occasion to cap off his month of celebrations.
New place, similar ardour
This 12 months, the twenty first annual ClydeFest is shifting from its longtime dwelling at Bynum Soccer Discipline to the Chatham County Agricultural and Conference Middle in Pittsboro.
In accordance with Cheryl Chumbley, inventive director of the CAC, the change of venue was made to enhance the accessibility of the occasion. She mentioned rising pageant attendance means extra parking is required than Bynam can accommodate. The brand new location can be extra centrally situated for extra Chatham residents, which means extra locals will have the ability to attend the humanities pageant.
Final 12 months’s occasion had greater than 2,000 attendees, and organizers anticipate extra this 12 months with a bigger venue.
“Being at Bynum Soccer Discipline all these years has been completely magical,” Chambly mentioned. “And we’re extremely grateful to the Bynum neighborhood as a result of it means a lot to them to have so many individuals in the neighborhood for the weekend.”
However as a lot love and magic goes into this ballpark, Chumbley mentioned it simply does not maintain the quantity of individuals — or parking — wanted for an occasion as massive as ClydeFest.
Out there artwork
Whereas the logistics of the brand new location weren’t straightforward to navigate, Chumbley mentioned she believes it can repay as a result of the occasion will likely be accessible to extra folks.
Making certain higher entry and lowering potential limitations to the humanities has been a longstanding purpose of the CAC. Final 12 months’s occasion was the primary time ClydeFest was free for all to attend, and that continues this 12 months.
A part of the explanation the occasion is open to everyone seems to be due to sponsors like The Jester Group of Baird, a household wealth administration agency in Chapel Hill. The agency has been the title sponsor of the pageant for the previous 4 years. Tracey Legg, who works for the Jester Group, has volunteered at ClydeFest along with her household for a number of years. She mentioned she thinks the occasion is efficacious as a result of it attracts all generations.
“My grown kids nonetheless have painted animals on their cabinets,” she mentioned. “We all know how necessary the humanities may be, and this occasion actually embodies all the things you suppose youngsters needs to be doing as of late.”
The brand new location additionally opens up alternatives for innovation on the two-decade-old pageant, together with new acts equivalent to a youth sitar ensemble, a West African drum circle and a efficiency by the Jordan-Matthews Excessive Faculty Golden Tones a cappella group.
The pageant may even characteristic acts who’ve turn out to be ClydeFest staples such because the Bouncing Bulldogs tightrope staff and bluegrass duo Carolina Lightnin’. Alice Zincone, who performs bass for the duo, says the group has been performing on the pageant for greater than a decade.
“We try to make our music enjoyable for teenagers,” Zincone mentioned. “I feel Clyde impressed us to do that and what he provides to households everywhere in the county with this occasion.”
Broad strokes
The magic of ClydeFest additionally matches into the broader work of the CAC. The council goals to foster a ardour for the humanities amongst all county residents by means of intentional funding within the arts and the schooling of youngsters by means of the humanities.
ClydeFest matches each of those missions as a result of it is a one-day, family-oriented occasion that is all about doing issues collectively. Crafting is not about having the proper supplies or one of the best pens within the classroom, it is about artwork with the supplies at hand.
“The Chatham Arts Council has a imaginative and prescient that each member of the Chatham neighborhood may have entry to the humanities,” mentioned Chumbley. “At a time when the psychological well being of youngsters and the psychological well being of adults is de facto being questioned, the humanities is usually a massive a part of the answer.”
The information help Chamblee’s speculation. In accordance with a 2016 Drexel College research, partaking in artwork for at the very least 45 minutes, particularly in a gaggle setting, considerably decreased contributors’ ranges of the stress hormone cortisol.
ClydeFest affords a possibility to do exactly that — create artwork with different folks.
“It is a one-day intervention,” Chumbley mentioned. “It is community-building, it is place-making, it is tremendous distinctive, and there is nothing else prefer it.”
Volunteers and occasion contributors agree with Chamblee’s reward. Debbie Bousquet has been collaborating within the occasion since 2003. She comes yearly as a result of ClydeFest is what she calls “a particular, magical pageant”.
“Day actually embodies Clyde Jones,” Bousquet mentioned. “He feels very passionately that it is for the ‘yungins,’ as he would say, and I feel anybody who volunteers and participates and performs matches that mannequin.”
In complete, greater than 200 volunteers are wanted to run the occasion. Bousquet, who was the volunteer coordinator for this 12 months’s occasion, mentioned preparations for Saturday’s occasion start early Thursday, with greater than 150 folks organising tents, tables, artwork provides and merchandising stations. On the day of the occasion, greater than 60 volunteers from a wide range of native organizations participate in three-hour shifts, beginning at 7:30 a.m. with on-site setup and ending with teardown, which often ends round 6 p.m.
“You see youngsters who have been little youngsters 20 years in the past who are actually coming again to volunteer,” Bousquet mentioned. “That custom that households need to proceed to be part of is fairly cool.”
Reporter Ben Rappaport may be reached at brappaport@chathamnr.com or on Twitter @b_rappaport
