Smoky Hill River Festival

The Smoky Hill River meanders through the central Kansas town of Salina. Nestled on the banks of a horseshoe bend in the waterway sits Oakdale Park, site of the annual Smoky Hill River Festival.

Located in the middle of the country and boasting a population just under 50,000, Salina may lack some of the cultural and ethnic diversity of large metroplexes; however, the Smoky Hill River Festival can never be accused of lacking diversity. It features a wide variety of foods, arts, and music styles. Nancy and I, in this our first visit to the festival, found no reason to tire of what we were experiencing. There was always a change of pace coming.

This is my first attempt at video blogging. Hoping to avoid creating any one video file that is too large, I have made three separate slide shows. The first is an introduction focusing on festival attendees and foods, the second festival art, and the third on music. (I'm not certain why the opening title slide of the second show doesn't appear on this page. Still learning.)

While selecting photos of the festival art and artists, I discovered that almost all of my images dealt with more contemporary, folksy, or quirky works, as if there were no "traditional" artwork at the show. That wasn't the case, but now you know which types of artwork captured the eye of this photographer/writer.

The official program lists more than fifty entertainment groups, some of which were from local schools and organizations. Even so, the lineup of first rate performers is impressive. I only heard a small portion of those on Friday evening and during the day on Saturday. I was really hoping to catch Kelley Hunt, but we needed to head home prior to her performances.

Salina's Smoky Hill River Festival - another great Kansas event worth a visit!

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Slide shows created in Windows Movie Maker. All images © frank thompson photos.

Please let me know how you like this video blog format. You are welcome to leave a comment in the space provided. Thank You for dropping by to check out my Kansas Journeys Blog.

Frank Thompson

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