rom Indian leather dollmaking to Rus
sian folk talcs to dancing in the streets,
Nebraskaiu celebrated their rich heritage
in hot-August-mght style at last weekend’s
Summertime Nebraska Festival.
Organizers focused the outdoor event on
children’s activities, fine ait and Nebraska
cultural history, said Carole Eddins, festival
coordinator.
Throw in enough live music to keep the
stillest of toes tapping from high noon to mid
night moon, and the crowd of 60,000 proved
they can take care of the rest.
“There was no lull in the action at any
time,’’ Eddins said.
Spinning raw wool and spinning old talcs,
oral historians like storyteller Sue Bad Mocca
sin, prairie blacksmith Bob Bigelow and moun
tain man David Grantski pul new life into old
skills and legends.
While one outdoor stage shook with His
panic, American Indian and old-ume square
dancers, the Mainstage rocked the streets with
reggae and salsa, big band jazz, Chicago blues,
country swing and good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll. Bal
ladeer Kevin Avcy filled the Depot with more
mellow folk tunes, along with John Walker’s
“prairie dog music” and Chris Sayre’s un
usual antique instruments.
And the silver screen brought a bit of film
history to the festival with Betty Boop, Popeye
and other early Fleischer Brothers’ animation.
With 25 bands, 42 artists, 39 craft demon
strators, five storytellers and more than 25 food
booths, who said history can’t be fun?
Story and photos
by Robin Trimarchi
Counterclockwise from top right:
•Retired janitor Waldo Larsen jams to
Southside Chicago blues with Magic
Slim and the Teardrops on Saturday
afternoon.
•Rock ‘n’ roll and romance was in the air
at Friday night s street dance.
•Nine-year-old Eli Russell Barnes, 5106
West Benton, replaced horsepower with
sheer determination in the children's
tractor pull.
•The sounds of a hot saxophone on a
hot summer day is dancing music to
former Lincolnite Kathleen Danker.
•Bert Callaway, director of the Black
History Museum in Omaha, shared sto
ries of black cowboys and pioneer
women.