Wyoming Arts Council

Jackson Hole Fire Festival June 18-20


For Immediate Release For more information, contact:

June 4, 2010 Candra Day 307-733-3082

vista360jh@gmail.com

The Jackson Hole Fire Festival

Coming Up June 18-20

An International Festival of Mountain Cultures

Vista 360° presents the 3rd annual Jackson Hole Fire Festival, an event which takes place on the Town Square during the 3rd weekend of June — summer solstice weekend. Shared by the people of Mt. Fuji, the Fire Festival is a 2-day celebration of thanks and respect to the mountains and the natural world, bringing together mountain cultures – their traditions, their passions and their similarities.

Each year begins with a Japanese-style Fire Festival on Friday night, and continues with the exploration of another mountain culture the following day. This year, the 2010 Fire Festival will showcase the mountain culture of the Greater Yellowstone region.

Ceremony of Fire

The Jackson Hole Fire Festival will be a Solstice party, celebrating the natural world of the Jackson Hole valley, Japanese style. With the high-powered rhythm of Japanese taiko drumming performed by world-renowned Fubuki Daiko, food and drink galore, a festival market and a Japanese fire ceremony to soothe the fire spirits for the coming year, Friday night will be a dazzling street fair lit by a blaze of torches.

This evening celebration begins on June 18, at 6:00pm and winds down at 11:00pm. Taiko drumming performances will take place at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30. The mikoshi ceremony, honoring the Grand Teton and expressing the community’s respect for the natural world, is the heart of the Fire Festival. It will begin at 8:30. Authentic Japanese food will be offered by Bill Boney and Dining In Catering.

Special Guest Artist

The Fire Festival is honored to present special guest artist, Hyakkimaru, who is an Artistic Ambassador from the Prefecture of Yamanashi in Japan. He will demonstrate kiri-e, the intricate art of Japanese paper-cutting. Hyakkimaru is known for both traditional paper-cutting and for the design of manga comic book characters. As Guest Artist, he will exhibit his work, demonstrate his techniques and lead hands-on workshops. His anime film with Osamu TEZUKA (“Muramasa”) will also be screened and he will discuss the experience of working on the film.

Other demonstrations include aikido and karate, as well as opportunities to try origami and Japanese-style brush painting. Children will be invited to play traditional Japanese games and listen to kamibashi, storytelling with pictures.

Exploring the Greater Yellowstone Food Trail

The Greater Yellowstone Food & Heritage Fair will take place on Saturday, June 19, and invites all to explore the culture of the Greater Yellowstone region by following the “Food Trail” — the food traditions that have flavored the lives of people who live here, the occupations and innovations related to food, the values that guide the food producers of the region. The spotlight will be on people of the region whose lives are dedicated to food — why they do what they do, how they do what they do, where they learned their craft, what worries them, what inspires them.

This street fair will be a full spectrum of tastings, storytelling, exhibits, demonstrations and food — artisan foods, hunting and fishing, wild foods, gardens and gardening, sheep and sheepherding and woolen crafts herbs and tinctures — all brought together to showcase the often-surprising food culture of the Greater Yellowstone.

Storytelling

As Mary Hufford has written for the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, “ Like Edgar Allen Poe’s purloined letter, folklife is often hidden in full view, lodged in the various ways we have of discovering and expressing who we are and how we fit into the world.” Probably nothing is more ever-present in daily life than food, but the stories behind the food we eat are often “hidden in full view”. This storytelling program aims to present these stories as a powerful and memorable way to explore the living heritage and and contemporary folklife of the Greater Yellowstone region.

Keynote speaker, Hal Cannon is the founding Director of the Western Folklife Center and its famous child, the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. For more details about Hal, please see his web site, www.cowboypoetry.com

To illustrate the heritage and contemporary food culture of the Greater Yellowstone region, 15 people have been invited to tell their fascinating, personal stories about food, especially about how their lives became dedicated to the production of food. Each of these stories can be thought of as trail-markers along the “food trail”.

These “trail-marker” themes include:

• gardens and gardening

• artisan foods

• beer –making

• hunting

• fishing

• wild food gathering – mushrooms and huckleberries and wild greens

• ethnic food traditions – Basque

• sheep and sheepherding

• cattle, elk and bison ranching

• orchards in the Greater Yellowstone

• herbs and tinctures

• working as a chef

• honey and bee collaboration in the wildlands

• Native American foods

• mountaineering foods

• heritage foods of this region

The Art of the Hunt

Art of the Hunt is an exhibition featuring hunting implements created by Wyoming artisans; including knives, gunstocks, bows, decoys, gear and more! Art of the Hunt is a project of the Wyoming Arts Council Folklore Program and Folklorists Anne Hatch and Andrea Graham.

Other demonstrations will include casting and hand-tying flies, shearing sheep, sheep dogging, spinning and felting wool, and making backyard hoop houses to extend the food growing season in this region.

Calling All Pie Lovers

Slow Food in the Tetons will be hosting a pie making contest, selling slices and auctioning off delicious pies to benefit Vertical Harvest. The goal of Vertical Harvest is to build a ‘vertical greenhouse’ next to the parking structure in downtown Jackson to extend the growing season in Jackson Hole and develop a local venue for growing produce that can be sold in the community and used for local food programs. The project will use cutting edge ‘vertical’ technology to expand the amount of food able to be grown per square foot, making it a viable source for produce.

For pie contest participation, please contact Molly:

mollyb@jacksonholegrocer.com / 307-690-8961

Locavore’s Luncheon

Plate lunches of regional dishes will be offered by Dining In Catering from 11 AM – 3 PM. Menu to include: local salad greens with mountain cheeses; bacon, swiss and arugula cheeseburger; Basque style lamb sausage, white beans and sheepherder bread; elk chili with camp cookie biscuits; mushroom, sausage and cheese quiche; and slow braised BBQ beef with barley stew. There will also be an additional children’s menu

For the Kids

Children’s activities on Saturday will include making homemade ice cream, seed planting, petting zoo, games and face painting.

Music

Dan Thomasma and Terry Yazzolino will be performing songs of the Yellowstone region, including a “don’t miss it” opportunity to hear a Yellowstone story told by Yazzolino. Talented guitarist and vocalist, John Sidle will also be performing. He was a member of Wilson’s legendary Stagecoach Band for many years, and also played various local and regional venues.

Marymere Opera

The world premier of a new opera by Matt Schickele drawn from the early days of Jackson Hole will take place on Saturday, June 19, after the festival at the Pink Garter Theater from 8:00 – 9:00pm. A second showing will be performed on Sunday at the Walk Festival Hall from 3:00 – 4:00pm. There is a $10 suggested donation.

Children’s Festival on Sunday

Teton Village hosts a Father’s Day celebration on Sunday, June 20, with activities for the whole family and a children’s festival of mountain life – Japanese taiko drumming performances, hands-on Japanese crafts, paper-cutting with Japanese artist, Hyakkimaru, and heritage craft workshops for children drawn from the heritage of the Greater Yellowstone. Children will also enjoy a Village-wide scavanger hunt, tram rides and bungie cord jumps.

Taiko drumming performances will be at 1:30pm and 2:30pm. A one-hour performance of Marymere, the new chamber opera drawn from the history of Jackson Hole, will take place at 3:00pm in Walk Festival Hall. For children ages 6 and older, a one-hour crafts program will be offered from 3:00pm to 4:00pm to allow parents to enjoy the opera.

The Children’s Festival will take place in the new Village Commons, in the heart of Teton Village. The plaza and natural amphitheater will feature outdoor performances and the new pop-jet foundation and playground will provide more entertainment for the kids. Produced by the Teton Village Association and its members.

For more information, please contact Candra Day at 307-733-3082 or email vista360jh@gmail.com


Sort By Category By Month By Year
Cancel