HOW TO GO
What: The Appalachian Festival
Where: 6201 Kellogg Ave., Cincinnati
When: May 10-12; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday
Cost: $6 for parking, plus $8 admission (adults), $4 (seniors), $2 (children aged 4-11), free for children 3 and younger
More info: (800) 430-3070, or www.appalachianfestival.org
Several years ago, when Sandra Moss first joined the Appalachian Community Development Association (ACDA) as a volunteer, she admitted she inadvertently shared some of the preconceived notions that many people have about people of Appalachian descent.
“I had a friend who was a coordinator who asked me to volunteer,” she said. “I’d never heard of it, but I figured I’d try it. I got sucked in while she left and wondered why I stayed.”
Nowadays, Moss is the treasurer of the ACDA and coordinator of the annual Appalachian Festival, which will be held for the 44th time this weekend at Cincinnati’s Coney Island. None of the board members take a salary for the work they do promoting Appalachian culture during the festival and throughout the year, but Moss feels rewarded in other ways.
“(Appalachian culture) is just interesting to me,” she said. “They’re very giving and loving. They work hard and make do with what they have. If they don’t have musical instruments, they make their own, and they sound as good if not better than any brand. One of our board members befriended some coal miners and went into the mines. She later wrote a book about it to help people understand the culture.”
The festival will consist of live music, dancing, storytelling, handmade crafts such as furniture, cookery and utensils, and a “living history area,” which will consist of tents and people in period dress making items such as apple butter and ice cream. Moss said the festival attracts people of all ages and incomes, Appalachian and non-Appalachian alike. The nearest Appalachian communities can be found in Clermont County and Brown County.
“People come for different things,” Moss said. “Some people come just for the crafts. Some just like ambience of Coney Island. The storytelling will be tall tales from the region. The dancing will be square and clog. The music is bluegrass, but we’re introducing some rockabilly this year. I don’t know how that’s going to fly. We’re trying to get more younger people involved.”
According to the festival website, the goal is to “improve the urban Appalachian’s self-image, and to encourage both Appalachian and non-Appalachians’ appreciation of the cultural heritage of Appalachians.” Moss affirmed that some Appalachians suffered from low self-image, usually related to lower incomes, but not necessarily any more so than any other group.
“Some people can’t break the mould because they don’t think they’re worthy of it,” she said. “There’s a lot of pride. There was a family where the mother passed away suddenly just before Christmas, and the father wouldn’t let me help him. They can be bashful when you meet them because they don’t make to cities very often, but the same was true with people in my Indiana hometown when you took them out of their element.”
The board is indeed very protective of Appalachia’s image. When somebody showed up at the festival one year with a set of “hillbilly wood chimes” (where the “chimes” were empty beer cans), he had to be asked to put it away.
“There’s a lot of people of Appalachian descent who have made it big but won’t say where they are from,” she said. “They’ll just say they’re from Kentucky. We’re trying to change that image.”
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