Tulsa International Mayfest, now celebrating it's 35th year, runs Thursday, May the 17th through the Sunday, May 20th.
This year we have a partnership with iROK Radio who is doing 4 weekly Mayfest-themed podcasts. The first of which is online now and features previews of some of the Mayfest musicians. Check them out at: irokradio.com
We are also on myspace this year: http://www.myspace.com/tulsamayfest
The music calendar is available on myspace as well as TulsaMayfest.org which also features more information about Mayfest including the food guide!
Come see us next week!
Anyone got any questions/comments?
I know the parking thing DT is being beaten into the ground but are there park & rides this year?
Come see me work at the beer booth on Friday night. [:D]
There is no park & ride. There are plenty of spaces available in the area.
Here is a map of mayfest:
http://tulsamayfest.com/imgUL/Mayfest_Map.pdf
There are large parking lots south of the festival on main, a parking garage on the main mall, parking on 3rd east of boston and the new city garage across from the invitational gallery.
Mayfest is now over.
[:(]
Anyone have any post-Mayfest comments or questions?
Dang...I miss it already.
I went down there Sat. night with my family and had a great time. I snapped a few pictures of both Mayfest and the Blue Dome arts festival (I think they added TO each other instead of compete). I will try to do a little write up and post them later.
I went last year and was very disappointed with the number and quality of art booths. It seemed as though Mayfest had gradually gotten worse in that respect over the years and last year it had hit an all time low. I had had some "discussions", ok, arguments with some people about it and was all prepared to go this year and really take stock of what was there. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. There were a lot of very interesting and enjoyable art booths with a wide variety of styles and types.
While at Blue Dome I asked some people if they had been to Mayfest yet. Oddly enough everyone I asked had not for they had stopped at Blue Dome first and would then go to Mayfest. But when I mentioned Mayfest they kind of rolled their eyes, and I said " No, they really have some good art there this year, there is a nice variety of stuff." It seemed through my discussions that others had also grown jaded to any expectation of there being much interesting art there.
I think that Mayfest needs to keep a good solid core of decent art like they did this year. I would personally like to see some higher quality stuff there as well. The Blue Dome festival presents itself as being more of a beginning artist, grassroots, organic type festival, so one would expect a wide variety in the quality and type of art. Ranging from someone with just a couple of things who has never done a show before, to someone who is more of a professional, etc. Blue Dome and Mayfest sell themselves as being different types of festivals. I would like to see Mayfest have some higher quality art since it "sells" itself as being such. Not just higher quality than what you would find at Blue Dome, for I think over all they did this year, but higher quality art than it, Mayfest, had this year. But here I do not know if that is what the Tulsa art buying public wants or even if the Tulsa market can support that.
It may be that Tulsa can only support having 100 booths of 300-3000 dollar type art and not 100 booths of higher quality 3,000-30,000 dollar art. However it would be interesting to have some higher quality art booths mixed in with the kind of art they had this year, but even here you have to actually have a number of those to make it so that art buyers have enough choices to pick from.
Over all, I would say the art booths at Mayfest were muuuuch better than they had been the last several of years.
My only complaint was that the tents closed up fairly early. We only got to see a few by the time we wandered up to Mayfest from the Blue Dome district. Both festivals rolled down the tents a little early, IMO.
The bands and multiple stages were good at Mayfest.
quote:
Originally posted by Conan71
My only complaint was that the tents closed up fairly early. We only got to see a few by the time we wandered up to Mayfest from the Blue Dome district. Both festivals rolled down the tents a little early, IMO.
The bands and multiple stages were good at Mayfest.
The time was mainly based on the fact the booths are generally not lit. Mayfest was open until 11pm Thursday and Friday, midnight on Saturday and 6pm on Sunday. Blue Dome closed at 9pm Friday, 8pm Saturday and 4pm on Sunday.
Also, if you believe the two festivals compliment each other, make sure and let people know. Some people seem to believe you have to support one or the other.
Anyone read this?
http://www.urbantulsa.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A17127
UTW had somewhat of a vested interest in the Blue Dome, considering they had a large banner on the concert stage.
If one wants to see both festivals, they just need to start a little earlier. I think they both have their place.
I sure think they complimented each other. The 'buzz' of an event such as this is nearly as important as the quality of the event. Certainly the extra foot traffic each generated was enough to add to the other.
One thing though, Mayfest should have had a banner or sign near the Blue Dome telling people where Mayfest was. I bumped into a couple of groups that were looking around confused, when I offered directions they were looking for Mayfest and couldn't find the PAC Gallery.
Mayfest could reciprocate if the Blue Dome felt slighted.
quote:
Originally posted by cannon_fodder
I sure think they complimented each other. The 'buzz' of an event such as this is nearly as important as the quality of the event. Certainly the extra foot traffic each generated was enough to add to the other.
One thing though, Mayfest should have had a banner or sign near the Blue Dome telling people where Mayfest was. I bumped into a couple of groups that were looking around confused, when I offered directions they were looking for Mayfest and couldn't find the PAC Gallery.
Mayfest could reciprocate if the Blue Dome felt slighted.
Yep, we had a few confused people asking us as well.
I thought it was pretty cool a lot of the small vineyards showed up at the Blue Dome. Wise idea charging something for the tasting, since there were a few scruffy, unbathed guys looking for free wine.
I walked home with a case of wine from Summerside Vineyards . Their 2005 Route 66 Red is pretty unique and grows on you as you finish the glass. Mmmmm. We split the case with one other of their wines, I think it was their Cab Franc.
It was great to see the wineries. One note: when buying 'local' wine make sure the grapes are grown locally. Some local wins are fermented and/or bottled in Oklahoma using imported grapes. That doesnt count (as much).
I liked their Rte. 66 red better than their Merlot. I think you will enjoy that.
We got some of the Cynthiana from Stone Bluff.
We were at a wine tasting party a couple of years ago with a lot of top dollar bottles of wine. Guests ranked their favorites from a blind taste and the Cheval Blanc from Stone Bluff came out on top of the whites by a landslide. Give it a try.
Picture thread:
http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6660