APPS Festival – WOW!!

Our First Annual APPs Festival was such a success! Thanks so much to everyone who came out to learn about LOUA and pawpaws, buy some native plants, purchase some amazing art, listen to great music, and eat some awesome food. So thanks again to everyone who stopped by to see what we had going on!

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure how the turnout would end up. We had placed fliers in most of the households around the Arboretum as well as notices on Facebook and our blog. Scioto Gardens also did a lot of marketing for the event. But it was our first festival, and we (OK, I!) just didn’t know what to expect! But Jeff Frantz was there to lend us a hand, getting us the food truck, the Ohio Pawpaw Growers Associations and donating the pawpaw trees for LOUA to sell. There were the usual hiccups like us getting there and realizing we had no signs to place outside the parking lot – a big huge thank you to Meghan for her help in getting poster board and markers to make signs. Those signs really did a lot to draw attention to the event, although I think my sign waving in the tree lawn also caused many motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians to  stop in. (And by the way, I was flipped off twice while waving my apparently incendiary sign that read “Plants” or “Food Truck.” What’s up with that?!). And the not so usual hiccup of a gust of wind taking down the tent that LOUA, FLOW, and UCAN was using. Thankfully, no-one was hurt!

I also wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all the associations and vendors that came to the APPs Festival:

• addaPtations (Andrea Gorzitze and Theresa Calip – abgorzitze@yahoo.com)

• Pat Belisle Sculpture

• Jordanica Handcrafted Jewelry (Ben Jordon – benjordon@hotmail.com)

• Ohio Pawpaw Growers Association

• Red Hot Food Truck

• Scioto Gardens

• Nathan Turner, Artist, Sculpture and Portraits (mr.nathant@yahoo.com)

All of these vendors brought such wonderful things to buy and see. And I also want to thank the musicians who came out to play their music:

• Gyspy Taco

• Freedom n’ Folk Revival (Elizabeth Bolen – elizabethabolen@yahoo.com)

Until next time! (And next year!)