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Thursday, August 5, 2010 • HERITAGE NEWSPAPERS/WESTERN REGION
Milan Bluegrass Festival set By Steven Howard Heritage Newspapers
The 13th annual Milan Bluegrass Festival will take over the K.C. Campground on Sherman Road Aug. 12 through 14, bringing together 20 worldclass musical acts and an abundance of related fun. Organizer Jim Wilder said his event is unparalleled in the region. “This is the best bluegrass festival in Michigan and the biggest,” he said. “We have as good of talent as anyone.” Nationally known artist Rhonda Vincent will headline the festival. “People would pack the place on a Thursday to see her,” he said. “They would come any day.” Though some performers don’t have the name recognition as Vincent, Wilder said all of the musicians appearing in Milan are top-notch. “I don’t have any bad talent, to be honest with you,” he said. With the quality of the music and sheer number of performers returning, Wilder said people come from far and wide to attend the show.
“It will be crowded,” he said. “They come from everywhere in the country. They even come from Alaska.” Wilder said his festival has even attracted an international following. “I had a group of eight or nine people come from Japan,” he said. “They’ll be a field full of Canadians,” he added. Though the show has a reputation well outside of the immediate area, Wilder said he knows the locals are loyal fans, as well. “Michigan is one of the best sets of bluegrass people in the world,” he said. “They schedule their vacations around it.” Wilder said he took over the Milan bluegrass festival 13 years ago after the event had stopped for a while. “It went for a long time, then it stopped for 11 years,” he said of the time before he revived the festival. Wilder also orchestrates the annual Charlotte Bluegrass Festival and said both are popular because bluegrass music offers listeners something unique.
“It’s just straight forward music,” he said, suggesting the form of the music requires diligent artists. “You can’t cover up the mistakes like you can with, say, country music.” Wilder said the musicians are something else to hear. “They’re some of the finest pickers,” he said. “There are some young people (on the music schedule) who can pick with the best of them.” Though people of various age groups show up for the festival, Wilder said the majority are older folks. “About 75 percent are old-timers,” he said. “Old people who just can’t hardly walk will come because they were raised up on it.” Food will be among the highlights, with a pig roast on Friday. There also will be traditional suppers in the main dining facility. Music by the performers will be available for purchase, as well as some old-time classics. “I’ve got the old Homestead records,” he said. Wilder said the cost of the show is $35 a day, which gets
attendees consistent music from noon to abo9ut 11:15 p.m., except for an hour dinner break. Those who want to attend all three days can pay a discounted fee of $65. The option to camp is also available for those wanting to stay on the premises, with camping fees being $12 a night for Thursday through Saturday, Wilder said. Wilder said as the generation who grew up with bluegrass has gotten older, his attendance numbers have gone down slightly, but he said he still expects between 1,500 and 1,800 people over the course of the weekend. For more information, visit www.wilderbluegrassfestival. com. Steven Howard can be reached at 429-7380 or showard@heritage.com. Follow his blog at http://heritageweststaffblog.blogspot.com.
Heritage Newspapers
The Scrap Box in Ann Arbor is trying something new with a series of five workshops that will combine people ages 7 years and older. “We’re very excited about our new inter-generational workshops,” says Nels Nelson, development director for The Scrap Box. “We expect lively discussions and creative explorations during the workshops, as well as promoting ‘green’ thinking outside of the box,” says Tasha Lebow, field manager for U of M School of Education’s Program for Educational Opportunity. Included are workshops Aug. 7 on wildflower making from plastic bottles, and on Sept. 11 pop-up cards and books made from simple paper cuts and
MARKET FROM PAGE 1-A
him a credit card, but then found out it’s a permit that each employee of each vendor has to pay, not just me,” he said. “Apparently, someone brought it to the attention of someone at City Hall.” Sancho said the cost associated with the permit just seemed nonsensical. “The price for that was not even fair,” he said. To make matters worse, according to Sancho, Zilke used his brewing company as a drop off point for his Community Supported Agriculture program that supplies fresh vegetables to some 150 community members a week. In the wake of the ordinance enforcement, Zilke has had to go elsewhere. “He had to call all of his customers and tell them that this was no longer the pick-up point,” Sancho said. Sancho indicated that when he approached City Council and the mayor about the issue, most were supportive of him and shared his belief the law was hampering a positive thing. “They were very open to getting this thing resolved,” he said. Sancho said he is open to hearing about whatever council comes up with, though he feels a re-reading of the law might be in order. “I think the current ordinance could be fairly interpreted, though it could be a gray area and they have to be fair to everyone, because some people have already paid the fee,” he said. Though Sancho said he also feels he has another legal leg to stand on. “What’s different here is that this is being conducted inside my business, my licensed food establishment business,” he said, pointing out the thousands of dollars he already pays to the city in fees for those reasons. “The health department says what I’m doing here is OK, so why does the city say it isn’t.?” Muckler agrees concerning the prohibitive fees and other requirements. “It’s a really bad law,” she said. “It’s just so antiquated. It’s not serving us well.” The legislation was written two years ago, Muckler said, and the portion that is now hampering produce sales was the result of apparent political maneuvering. “It was 2008 and I was very early in my term,” she said. “We had a different city administrator at that time. There was a dispute between a store owner and a private seller (over
folds. On Oct. 2 will feature mask making and Nov. 13 will be kaleidoscope making. The prices are $5 for children 7 through 13 and $10 for adults ages 14 and older. “The Scrap Box always places a special focus on creative uses for recyclables and, with this new collaboration, our projects will also shed light on the science, technology, engineering and math involved with both the project and the recyclable materials at hand,” Nelson says. The workshops are planned from 10 to 11:30 one Saturday each month from August through December. To pre-register and for more information, visit www.scrapbox.org.
produce sales) and he came up with an amendment where the private vegetable seller has to go through this process.” Muckler said she now thinks the amendment was not in the best interest of local residents, and questions the wisdom of making laws to serve individuals rather than the general public. However, she said she feels there are redeeming aspects to the broader law the amendment was attached to. Council member Martha Churchill asked that the City Council seek to remove the entire law from the books. Churchill said she regrets having a hand in passing the legislation in the first place, calling the law “stupid,” and suggested the city doesn’t have a problem with rogue vegetable sellers, anyway. The portions of the law that Muckler wants to keep address potentially manipulative traveling sales people. “I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The ordinance was made for people going door-to-door,” she said, indicating it was purposed toward thwarting unscrupulous grifters. “There’s some validity to that.” Others on council have no problem with the law, Muckler said, complicating her and Churchill’s bid to have it altered in some way. “All the council members have very definite opinions on this,” Muckler said. “It may take more time to change than I originally
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thought.” Other solutions council has proposed include issuing a permit to those seeking to hold the farmers’ market on their property, such as Sancho, thus allowing all those participating to be blanketed under the one license. In any event, Sancho said he has decided to halt the farmers’ market activity for the year because by the time policy can be changed, the selling season likely will be over. “If they get it resolved, we might do one or two days in September,” he said. Sancho said it is just a matter of time, however, before the farmers’ market is back in full swing. “The plan is to come back and make it a weekly market next year,” he said. “The bottom line is we did something good here for the community.” “It’s just silly,” Muckler said of the law. “We just have to figure out a way to be fair.” Muckler said council will address the issue at an upcoming meeting. Steven Howard can be reached at 429-7380 or showard@heritage.com. Follow his blog at http://heritageweststaffblog.blogspot.com.
SFarmers’ aline Market
SUMMERFEST HOURS SATURDAY 8:00am-2pm FARMERS MARKET IS RELOCATED for One Day Only during Summerfest to Parking Lot #2 on E. Henry St., 1/2 block East of S. Ann Arbor St.
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