Festival blooms with success

On Sunday, April 3, between four and five thousand visitors attended the Art of the Flower Festival, the first of many festivals to come focusing on Fallbrook’s growing artistic culture. The festival was a leisurely one-day fair celebrating the beauty and importance of the flower in everyday art and recreation. It was designed to bring more of an artistic feel to the town of Fallbrook, to help support local artists and their work and to help support some of the local businesses down on Main Street, in the “Heart of the Village.”

At the festival, one could enjoy approximately 40 local artists and their crafts by browsing around, shopping and learning about the different arts and decoration. Throughout the day, you could take part in demonstrations with “Artists in Action” along Main Street, including glass blowing, ceramics, stone carving and silver work, sculpting, flower arranging, bridal bouquet demonstration and, of course, the flower on canvas. At the Art Studio on Alvarado, you could view a watercolor demonstration with Bryony Wynn-Jones.

Some of the musicians who played throughout the day included Rob Anderson on the Native American flute, Phee Sherline and Ken Graydon on the hammer dulcimer and guitar, Carilyn Vice and Nicolette Birkett on the dulcimer and guitar, Frank Alves on guitar, San Sanches with his Latin American harp and Jeff Bishop on his guitar, each with their own original earthy sounds.

Downtown retailers and restaurants featured flower-oriented merchandise and foods created just for this event. You could also indulge in local wines and micro-brewed beer. There was also a crafts booth for the kids. There certainly was a lot to do at the festival, and if you got tired, a horse-drawn carriage was available to take you to all the different parts of the festival.

If you missed the Art of the Flower Festival, it’s not too late. At the Fallbrook Art and Cultural Center, the Art of the Flower Showcase, generously sponsored by Michael and Karon Cartwright, opened, celebrating the “beauty and influence of flowers in our lives through painting, sculpture, ceramics and glass.” The Art of the Flower Show is on from April 3 to 30, Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. Admission/donation is $5 at the door, and Art Center members get in free.