The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

I took some photos at Mayfest, the Blue Dome Arts Festival, and the AA employee picnic yesterday. My legs are sore and stiff from all the walking! Here's a link to 14 of them on G+. I liked this guy's shirt, though to be "fair and balanced" I'd have to have one endorsing socialism and I'd wear them on alternate days.

https://plus.google.com/photos/114874700548780474647/albums/6014783338610123825 (https://plus.google.com/photos/114874700548780474647/albums/6014783338610123825)

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W1UtnwNrHJM/U3jNnE_BaDI/AAAAAAAAVEI/BNcyQaT4vWc/w564-h423-no/BLUE+DOME+ARTS+FESTIVAL-ejwagnerjr-P5173000+%25281%2529.jpg)

If you purchase a shirt that says Socialism from a private individual or company, haven't you engaged in a conflict of interest?  :D

Or at least a mild psychosis?


Roses are red...
Violets are blue....
I'm schizophrenic...
....and so am I...

BDAF was great as always this year.  It’s fun going booth-to-booth and meeting the local artisans.  There are some things you see and think: “pancakes, that’s for sale?”  But, hey, it’s all about individual expression.

Didn't go. Had hopes for the new owners, but apparently they have raised their booth fee 500% over the last five years and the announcers were bashing Mayfest from the stage so color me unimpressed. Hop Jam and Mayfest didn't bash anyone else, in fact they promoted the other festivals. This "we can only succeed by saying the other guy sucks" mentality has got to go.

One is juried, one is open to everyone. One allows only handmade items, the other allows mass-produced items. It's like if Etsy kept attacking Amazon.

My wife went to Blue Dome and found the painting we have over our sofa. The exact painting.

We bought ours at Garden Ridge.

I wonder if that was why the quality of vendors at the Blue Dome was down so much this year. The prior two years there were many items I wanted to purchase. I looked forward to the BDAF much more than Mayfest. This year there were hardly any interesting, quality vendors. It was very disappointing.

Booths were $125 this year.  Food was $350

It was many of the same vendors from years before.  There were a few I was looking forward to seeing who did not show, but they were out of towners.

As far as the vendor fees going up by five times (maybe from the first year), there weren’t any empty exhibitor spaces that I noticed and the food court was pretty much bumper-to-bumper.

Both festivals have a lot to offer and they each have a different appeal.  Personally, I like the more organic feel of the BDAF, that’s just me.  I don’t think the organizers need to feel like the “other” festival is competition.

I’ve seen manufactured goods at Mayfest as recently as last year.  There were one or two booths which had Chinese-made children’s toys for sale.

Isn't it time for the Blue Dome to separate and do their festival on a different weekend?  Or, merge the two groups?

You must've gotten turned around. Find a "Made-In-China" sticker, get someone ejected.

Nope, not turned around.  MC saw it as well.

So just wrong then.

The only thing not handmade are the cups the beer comes in, some of the giveaways and those guys who walk around selling glow lights. There is usually only 1-2 booths "kids toys" like marionettes and bow and arrows, but they are handmade.

Ahhm!  For the price, they should be!

There are beer elves inside the waymatics hand-crafting the beer, only the cup is manufactured (and recyclable)