By Briley Mitchell
The rains started early in the week and continued to the wee hours of Saturday morning, but in the words of performing arts, the show must go on. “I hate to tell them to get out of the water but we have another three-foot rise making its way down the river” said Llano Earth Art Fest coordinator and Llano Assistant Emergency Management Coordinator, Ron Anderson, during a break in the weather on Friday afternoon. A decision was made to move live music into the Lantex Theater on Friday afternoon, one that proved to be a wise one as nature continued to drop rain on the outdoor festival. Workers, all volunteers, worked nonstop setting up the festival on Friday, many that were there for 13 plus hours in an all-day rain event, they would see the fruits of their labor the following day.
Then came Saturday. The morning started off cool and cloudy but by 11:00am, the skies were beautiful and the crowd showed up by the thousands. Traffic was backed up along Ford Street to HWY 71 and on Bessemer to HWY 29, and beyond. Llano was packed, and Grenwelge Park was full of the most diverse group of folks you will find anywhere, all with smiles on their faces.
The Llano Earth Art Fest, in only its second year, became of age. Families stacked rocks together; sand castles were being created; there was a tree man that was very popular with all ages, a rock climbing wall, vendors offering art of all types, and there was fun, lots of fun.
Across the street, Friends of the Red Top Jail (See Photo on Page 4) offered tours from 9:00am until after 4:00pm, giving visitors a glimpse into the history of one of Llano’s Treasures. In all, there were 60 tours done that day, and with each tour, money was raised to help with the renovations for the jail.
Two visitors, Tamara Bolton from Jacksonville, Texas and Kathy Murphy from Hawkins, Texas made the trip to Llano to compete in the rock stacking, but after seeing the competition Kathy said “we need to practice more; these are really good; we may be out of our league”. They heard about the competition on the radio and made plans to come to Llano, making reservations at a local Bed and Breakfast, where they were pampered, the Llano way.
Robert Santa from Fredericksburg (See photo Page 2) came to the festival for the second time, this year sporting a unique cap with a rock stack on it which must have brought him good luck as he came out with a first place in the “height division”, 104 inches and also a first place in the “arches” division. Making his way to Llano, all the way from Denver Colorado, was a man known as “Math Boy Wallace”, dressed in his Captain America clothes, who captured the “artistic” and “balance” divisions. Wallace was all smiles as he created his World Championship stacks, and equally as congenial as he accepted his awards. Rounding out the awards were brothers Cade and Nick Largent in the “height junior” division who were first and second respectfully. See the entire list of winners below.
Rock stacking was just a portion, a large portion of Llano Earth Art Fest, but there was so much happening on the river and in Grenwelge Park that offered something for everyone. Local vendors as well as others from around the hill country, workshops throughout the weekend ranging from “primitive fire starting” to “repurposing” to “saving hill country starry nights”. Face painters, a walking tree man that was a huge hit, a rock climbing wall, science adventures, and round the clock entertainment. There were bands from Austin, Fredericksburg, Trinity, Texas and more. The Amazing Walter, musician, and sand sculpture artist was a favorite among the visitors. His unlittering, “a word I made up one day (well maybe assembled out of parts of other words lying around in my vocabulary) when I was doing nothing better”, his message is simple, to properly dispose of more garbage than you generate “I promise to have fun, help others have fun, and unlitter.” The night continued with the awards ceremony, followed by “Come Drum for Fun” and a very impressive duo of fire spinners. The last two groups to perform, “Stump Juice” and Calliope Musicals” were big hits of the evening.
The festival continued on Sunday beginning at 10:00am, with a large group of families checking out the art created a day before, lots that were still standing, others that had succumbed to gravity. A family originally from Turkey, now living in Houston was here with their son, admiring all the works of art. “I like to stack rocks” said Hulya Eraslan, Professor of Economics at Rice University, “I Goggled it and found this festival close to home”. She was shocked when she found out this was only the second year, “it is very well organized and put on nicely”.
What do festivals like this do for Llano? They bring people to our town, some that didn’t know Llano was even here. It brings customers to our businesses, which is always needed. Tommy Scott, owner of Tommy’s Mesquite Flamed Pizza visited LEAF on Sunday morning, when asked how his day was on Saturday he replied, “it was the best day I have had since opening”. Motels, B & B’s and RV Resorts have all been filled for weeks, non-profits set up booths to raise money, some Llano businesses were proactive in getting booths and going to where the crowd was instead of the crowd coming to them. In other words, it was good for Llano. Businesses downtown had “great” to “phenomenal” days, at The Boutique, Cloris Tiffin said “Friday was good, but Saturday was great”, same sentiments from Kim at Charlie’s Store and from The Stuffology Store. Ed Stefan, owner of Stonewalls Pizza summed it up, “we were busy on Saturday from the time we opened the doors until we closed, it was a super day.”
And what does it take to put on a festival of this magnitude? Planning, that started the week after the first Llano Earth Art Fest. It takes money, lots of volunteer hours, and hard work. If you were one of the thousands that came out, maybe you would like to be a part of LEAF next year, they would be happy to see you, Great Job LEAF Committee!
Winners in the World Championship Rock Stacking Competition are as follows:
Height-Adult
1st- Robert Santa
2nd- Math Boy Wallace
3rd-Ceto Desai
Height-Junior
1st-Cade Largent
2nd-Nick Largent
3rd-Arina Desai
Arches
1st-Robert Santa
2nd-William Larsen
3rd-Ceto Desai
Balance
1st-Math Boy Wallace
2nd-Kai Drachenberg
3rd-Tamara
Artistic
1st-Math Boy Wallace
2nd-Cade and Nick Largent
3rd-Ceto Desai
