At this year’s Smoky Hill River Festival, “animal attraction” will abound with up-close and personal safari and African-themed learning and entertainment.
Volunteers from Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure will take center stage late morning on Friday and Saturday, co-starring a wide variety of small animals and birds, to teach Festival-goers how different creatures behave and adapt. Rolling Hills also will sponsor and staff a craft activity in the Children’s Art Participation Area—one of 10, free make-and-take crafts available at this year’s event. Participants will use natural materials such as leaves, sticks, and other objects to create a fun, nature-inspired painting. Rolling Hills is dedicated to the preservation of wildlife through conservation by providing interactive educational experiences. Animals featured at the Rolling Hills zoo and museum, west of Salina, hail from countries including Sudan, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe.
Also coming from an exotic homeland for Festival 2012 are the Kenya Safari Acrobats—five athletic young men who learned acrobatics as children on the beaches of Kenya, to escape the hardships of an impoverished country. Now they serve as artistic ambassadors, travelling the globe to entertain and inspire audiences of all ages. Hailing from the heart of Africa and also from North Carolina when they are stateside, this dynamic dance troupe takes acrobatics to exhilarating extremes.
Beyond their homeland, Kenya Safari Acrobats have performed in Tanzania, Canada, Mexico, Japan and across the U.S., including engagements for the White House, Super Bowl, MGM Entertainment, and numerous pro-team sporting events. The troupe performs gravity-defying human pyramids, balancing, tumbling, limbo dancing, hurling through hoops and breathtaking contortions, all while clapping to a joyful Benga beat. Combining artistry with humor and playfulness, they are a huge crowd pleaser.
Closer to home but no less fun are the animal-themed percussion activities that Kansas City-based drummer, educator, and composer Brandon Draper will lead. In community and school performances earlier in the week and at Oakdale Park through Festival weekend, Draper will use games, humor, non-verbal communication and intense personal energy to draw participants together to discover and experience rhythm. Young Festival attendees can enjoy be a part of the “Drum Safari,” a live-band stage show during which children will meet different African animals whose names are set to rhythm. After meeting the animals, many drums come out and the rhythms of all animals work together. Interactive songs, dancing, and drumming make this program a big hit.
The influences of nature and of many cultures can be touched, tasted, and heard across the Festival grounds over three-and-a-half days, through music, art, food, and more. For a complete schedule of Entertainment Fine Art and Four Rivers Craft Show exhibitors, Children’s Area activities, and more, visit the Festival website at riverfestival.com.
Festival Admission Buttons go on sale Tuesday, May 1 for the discounted price of $10 at all Dillons stores in Salina, McPherson, Great Bend, Hays, Junction City and Manhattan, as well as about 25 other retail locations across Salina and two Short Stop convenience stores in Concordia. E-mail Salina Arts & Humanities at sahc@salina.org for more ‘Button Stop’ details.
Smoky Hill River Festival T-shirts in white and grey and tanks (in white only) will go on sale May 1, featuring a whimsical design by Salina artist Curt Krob.
Shirts are $10 for youth and $12 for adult sizes. Additionally, Smoky Hill River Festival Gift Certificates are a wonderful way to gift friends, family, or co-workers with the opportunity to select unique handmade work from artists in the Fine Art Show, Four Rivers Craft Show, and in the Demonstration Area, during Festival weekend only.
The Gift Certificates make an ideal Mother’s Day, graduation, birthday, or anniversary gift—available in $20 denominations. Also, the signed, limited-edition original Festival Print featuring Salina native Mary Campbell is still available to Festival supporters who donate $100. Call 785-309-5770.