Festival has something for everyone
Pawtucket shows its many sides at annual arts festival
PAWTUCKET — To Cranston resident Cherlyann Lainhart, the Slater Park Fall Festival is about more than an opportunity to enjoy a cool, latesummer day in the sprawling public park while noshing on food truck fare and listening to local bands and artists jam out.
“The best part is the ambiance, the atmosphere,” Lainhart, a longtime Pawtucket resident said. “With everything going on, with all the violence and the heartache, and the pain in Texas and Florida, it's nice to come here. There's unity and peace and everyone gets along.”
Lainhart and her cousin, Pawtucket resident Christine Buja, were setting up their fold-out chairs
on the grassy lawn in front of the main stage just prior to noon Saturday, ensuring they had a prime seat for that afternoon's musical performances and the main attraction – the Rhode Island Philharmonic's “Pops in the Park,” followed by the fireworks display.
“We get our seats as soon as we can because the music is fantastic,” Lainhart said. “We enjoy the groups, especially the orchestra, and from our seats here, all we have to do is turn around to see the fireworks.”
“We've picked out our prime spot … We've been coming for five or six years, it's become a regular thing,” she added.
Buja, meanwhile, said that she appreciated that all of the entertainment came at zero charge, saying that was a big difference between seeing a show in Pawtucket versus the capital city.
“I can't afford Providence,” she said. “This all makes Slater Park come alive.”
Among the performers this year were new talent and old favorites. Greg Abate and his jazz quartet played on stage Saturday, with Sunday's performers including Arc Iris, a femaleled trio; Sidy Maiga, who leads an Afro-fusion band; Chachi Carvalho, a local hip-hop artist, educator, and member of the Cape Verdean community; the Eastern Medicine Singers, a drum circle that represents a handful of local Native American tribes; and dance and music performances from the Rhody Center. China’s Yang Wei of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and American banjoist Ed Sweeney performed and served as the festival’s Arts Ambassadors.
The music was hardly the only activity that drew the interest of the masses that turned out to Slater Park on Saturday. An enormous inflatable dome near the pond piqued the curiosity of many. The bubble was Pneuhaus’ Compound Camera, a free-standing dome dotted with hundreds of small “camera obscura,” that inverted images outside, projecting different perspectives from all angles inside the dome.
Inside, many were wowed by the images they saw. North Attleboro resident Marisa Babbe said it was her first time at the Slater Park festival and was unsure what to expect but she said the dome was “cool,” saying as she entered, “I wasn't sure what it was.”
Local residents Keith and Marsha McAuslan said they've been coming to the Fall Festival yearly, but had never seen anything quite like the Compound Camera.
“I love it, I think it's a great addition,” Marsha said. “It gives artists a chance to express themselves in a larger capacity.”
Marsha, a painter, said that she enjoys coming to the yearly Fall Festival to “see everybody's way they express themselves. I'm always excited with new ideas and ways they conceptualize that vision.”
Keith, her husband, added that they make a point of it to attend the Fall Festival every year, saying “the closeness gives it a neighborhood feel.”
Under the blanket of the 19th annual Pawtucket Arts Festival was the 18th annual Rhode Island Chinese dragon boat races and Taiwan Day Festival.
The races, which took place at the riverfront pier, are one-of-a-kind to the United States, as the famed fiberglass Taiwanese-style dragon boats gifted from Taiwan are utilized to incorporate the skill of flag-catching in each race.
The day, full of cultural performances and arts and crafts tables, wouldn’t have been complete withouth the dumpling-eating contest.