by Joe Tarr
The staid Dogwood Arts Festival may be invigorated with some help by likes of Superdrag, Man or Astroman?, one-act plays, puppet shows, and down-home bluegrass.
Attendance at Knoxville's largest festival has been poor in the past few years—which organizers have blamed on the weather. But critics have said organizers simply lack imagination and have failed to bring in quality entertainment to draw crowds.
In recent years, the festival generally closes at 5 p.m., leaving Market Square a ghost town of abandoned canvas tents.
Ann Pope, chairwoman of the Market Square portion of the festival, says major changes are in the works, although many of the details still need to be worked out.
The festival is scheduled to open the weekend of April 8. After the traditional kickoff parade that Saturday, a bluegrass festival organized by WDVX program director Tony Lawson will take place in Market Square until 9 p.m., Pope says. This will be the second year in a row WDVX has booked bluegrass acts for the festival.
On nights in the following week, the Actors Co-ops will hopefully stage a number of one-act plays, Pope says. There also may be a puppet show.
On the following Friday and Saturday evenings—April 14 and 15—a number of groups are being lined up to play. Local groups Superdrag and New Brutalism are confirmed, and the national sci-fi surf rock group Man or Astroman? is almost confirmed.
"We're trying to bring some more people downtown. It's trying to reach out to more people, people that might not be interested in arts and crafts but would come to see a band play. Market Square is a wonderful place to be in the evening," Pope says.
Organizing the evening entertainment are Mahasti Vafaie, owner of the Tomato Head and Lula restaurants in Market Square, and her employee, Brian Sherry, who books entertainment at the Tomato Head.
The arts and crafts booths will only remain in Market Square for the first week of the festival (and it will be their choice whether to stay open during the evening entertainment), Pope says.
However, other Dogwood activities—such as the tour buses—will continue until the festival ends on April 30. On the final weekend, there will be three-day craft shows held in Farragut and Fountain City (the Fountain City festival will include a bluegrass-gospel set organized by WDVX), Pope says. "This kind of takes the festival out to the people. I think it's a good idea to move it out into these areas," she says.
Although evening entertainment is already being booked, Dogwood organizers appear to want to keep the changes under wraps for now. Contacted before Thanksgiving, Cole Piper—chairman of Dogwood's board of directors—said no changes to the festival had been made yet. Piper could not be reached for comment this week.
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