View of Richmond Folk Festival towards the Altria Stage and the James River and City of Richmond beyond.
No event brings thousands of people right beside the James River like the Richmond Folk Festival. The festival, which is held by the ruins of the Tredegar Mill and across the canal on Brown’s Island, is almost completely surrounded by water. However, while volunteering at the festival and roaming the festival grounds, I saw little connection to the water running through the festival grounds or the mighty river rushing past nearby.
The day of perpetual rain that was my first day of volunteering brought me closer to water than I cared to be as my jacket and boots ultimately failed to keep a single inch of my body dry. As I observed visitors of the festival braving the rainy conditions to enjoy the music or a cup of craft beer, the fact that they were literally surrounded by water did not seem to make them any more aware of the rising water running through the mill, the canal, or the river. When I returned the next day, the sunny weather appeared to encourage people to lift their heads and look around a little more, but again the bodies of water went unnoticed. Visitors of the festival are not there for the geographical points of interest in their vicinity, they attend for the music, food and beer. But their general lack of curiosity in the geography of the area did surprise me nonetheless.
Upon reflection, I realized that there is no part of the festival that would draw a visitor’s attention to the river or other body of water. One cannot miss the stream that flows over the waterwheel by the mill, or the canal when one crosses it to reach Brown’s Island, but otherwise the water is not highlighted in any way. Even when one stands on Brown’s Island, surrounded by water, one’s view of the river or canal is often blocked by trees, thereby blocking our awareness of the water. The only connection to the river, and the importance of protecting the river that I saw was a beautiful info-graphic painted around a drain that led into this river. As Dr. Forsyth wrote about in his model of awareness that we spoke about in class, if one is not even aware of something such a the presence of a local stream or river, it is impossible to appraise the condition of the water and then take necessary actions to improve the health of the water. This drain began to build a closer connection to the river for passersby, but even here it was difficult to see the connection to the water that flowed by out of view on the other side of that pipe; and of many, out of mind as well.
Painted drain within Folk Festival grounds