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September 6, 2008

Arts 'N More Festival draws crowd

Amboy gathering grows in second year

By Brian Ojanpa

AMBOY — There was bluegrass music, an authentic Mariachi band, arts galore, and Norwegian lefse sold scant paces away from Mama Gomez’s burrito stand.

Not to mention the snake lady.

The Amboy Arts ‘N More Festival on Saturday was nothing if not eclectic — and that was by design.

“It formerly was just arts and music, and only certain people would come,” said festival co-organizer Brenda Klaus of the civic event that has undergone permutations in the past decade.

Its current incarnation is in its second year, and the tweaking it took to get it that way appears to be working.

Richard and Peggy Nelson, for two, were pleasantly surprised.

“I didn’t expect all of this,” Peggy Nelson said as she worked on a plate of sliced apples and dip. “I think it’s great. It’s good for the town.”

The Nelsons, who raise vegetables in rural Amboy, had taken their wares to the festival’s inaugural farmers’ market Saturday, where buyers made short work of their stock.

“We sold everything — tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers, ‘taters...,” Richard Nelson said.

Klaus said the essence of the festival is to expose rural residents to varied art media. But first you have to woo folks into the tent, so to speak.

That’s where the eclectic offerings such as the snake lady come in.

That would be Cindi Hess of Vernon Center who, prior to her exotic sword dance performance, drew a crowd with the snake wrapped around her neck.

Kids couldn’t get enough of the 3-year-old boa as they lined up to pet it.

An older woman, however, was wary.

Hess to the woman: “Want to pet her?”

Woman: “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I should go to the liquor store first.”

Hess’ performance partner was Mankatoan Patrice Hundstad, who describes her dance form as Middle Eastern in origin, in fusion with an “American tribal kind of look.”

Which is to say, she dances with fire — flaming baton-like things.

Ever had an accident?

“Burnt off a little bit of hair once,” the long-tressed dancer said.

Klaus said the arts theme of the festival is in keeping with the town’s ongoing efforts to restore downtown buildings to their original condition. Several have been restored to date.

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