Faerieworlds
Encyclopedia
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. The festival's primary theme is the "realm of the faerie
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
". The 2011 festival takes place on June 17–19 at Mount Pisgah Arboretum
Mount Pisgah Arboretum
The Mount Pisgah Arboretum is a non-profit arboretum and botanical garden located within the Howard Buford Recreation Area , between the Coast Fork of the Willamette River and the slopes of Mount Pisgah near Eugene-Springfield, Oregon, United States...
in the Howard Buford Park Recreation Area southeast of Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
.
Events
The festival features internationally bestselling artists and authors, GrammyGrammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning musicians and crafters whose work is connected to or inspired by folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
, specifically faerie lore. Faerieworlds was started by Emilio and Kelly Miller-Lopez of the musical group Woodland, and Robert Gould of the transmedia arts company Imaginosis. The festival
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
features the artwork of folklorists
Folkloristics
Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...
, authors and artists Brian and Wendy Froud, whose bestselling books on faeries, and whose conceptual design work with Jim Henson
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
have earned them international acclaim.
Unlike other faerie and renaissance
Renaissance Fair
A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire, or Renaissance festival is an outdoor weekend gathering, usually held in the United States, open to the public and typically commercial in nature, which emulates a historic period for the amusement of its guests. Some are permanent theme parks, others are...
events, Faerieworlds main stage concerts run into the late evening, and feature a digital lightshow of the faerie art of Brian Froud
Brian Froud
Brian Froud is an English fantasy illustrator. He lives and works in Devon with his wife, Wendy Froud, who is also a fantasy artist...
set to the live music of Woodland. As the event closes, Faerieworlds often includes fire
Fire dancing
Fire dancing is a group of performance arts or disciplines that involve manipulation of objects on fire...
and dance performances by troupes and performers from around the globe.
Locations
Faerieworlds Festivals have now taken place in SedonaSedona, Arizona
Sedona is a city that straddles the county line between Coconino and Yavapai counties in the northern Verde Valley region of the U.S. state of Arizona...
and Prescott, Arizona
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, North Plains, Oregon
North Plains, Oregon
North Plains is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States, off U.S. 26 on the northwest outskirts of the Portland metropolitan area. The population was 1,605 at the 2000 census; by July 2007 the population was estimated to be 1,813.-Geography:...
, and from 2005 to 2008 at Secret House Winery in Veneta, Oregon
Veneta, Oregon
Veneta is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 4,561.-History:Veneta was established in 1912 by Edmund Eugene Hunter, who named the settlement after his five-year-old daughter. Veneta post office was established in 1914. Veneta Orilla Hunter...
. Faerieworlds 2009 was moved to the Mount Pisgah Arboretum
Mount Pisgah Arboretum
The Mount Pisgah Arboretum is a non-profit arboretum and botanical garden located within the Howard Buford Recreation Area , between the Coast Fork of the Willamette River and the slopes of Mount Pisgah near Eugene-Springfield, Oregon, United States...
to accommodate a larger number of daily attendees and to allow onsite camping to thousands of guests. The festival returned to Mount Pisgah in 2010 and will take place there again in summer of 2011.
Performers and artists
The festival main stage has included such acts as Rasputina, Johnny CunninghamJohnny Cunningham
Johnny Cunningham was a Scottish folk musician. He was a founding member of Silly Wizard, as well as a member of Relativity, The Raindogs, and Nightnoise. Throughout his career, Cunningham was also a fiddler, composer and producer. His younger brother, Phil Cunningham, is a multi-instrumentalist...
, Susan McKeown
Susan McKeown
Susan McKeown is an Irish songwriter, folk singer and producer.-Early years:Susan McKeown was born on February 6, 1967 to John Ryan and Jane Ann McKeown in Terenure, Dublin, Ireland. She was greatly influenced by her mother, an organist and composer who died in 1982...
, John Renbourn
John Renbourn
John Renbourn is an English guitarist and songwriter. He is possibly best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career before, during and after that band's existence .While most commonly labelled a...
, Karan Casey
Karan Casey
Karan Casey is an Irish folk singer, and a former member of the Irish band Solas.-Early years:Casey was born in Ballyduff Lower, Kilmeaden, County Waterford, Ireland. Her family encouraged her to sing in the house, in a church choir and at school. At Waterford Regional Technical College she...
, Gaia Consort
Gaia consort
Gaia Consort is the original incarnation of Seattle-based folk rock music-group Bone Poets Orchestra. The group, popular in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, was founded as Gaia Consort by Chistopher Bingham and Sue Tinney in 1997. Their first performance was at Nudestock 97...
, Frenchy and the Punk formerly The Gypsy Nomads
The Gypsy Nomads
Frenchy and the Punk, formerly The Gypsy Nomads, are a Euro-American musical duo from New York. Their non-traditional eclectic mix of musical styles has elements of cabaret, gypsy, celtic and Steampunk. Formed in 2005, the duo consists of French born singer and percussionist Samantha Stephenson...
, Heather Alexander, and Qntal
Qntal
Qntal is a German "electro-medieval" band founded in 1991 by Michael Popp and Ernst Horn. They later added vocalist Syrah to complete the band. It has roots in Estampie, a band of similar genre but different style; Michael Popp and Syrah are the principal members. Horn left the group in 1999, to...
. Artists and authors featured at Faerieworlds have included Brian Froud
Brian Froud
Brian Froud is an English fantasy illustrator. He lives and works in Devon with his wife, Wendy Froud, who is also a fantasy artist...
, Tony DiTerlizzi
Tony DiTerlizzi
Tony M. DiTerlizzi is an American fantasy artist, children's book creator, and motion picture producer.DiTerlizzi created The Spiderwick Chronicles series with Holly Black, and was an executive producer on the 2008 film adaptation of the series. He won a Caldecott Honor Medal for his adaptation of...
, Michael Hague
Michael Hague
Michael Hague is an American illustrator, primarily of children's fantasy books.-Biography:Among the books he has illustrated are classics such as The Wind in the Willows, The Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit and the stories of Hans Christian Andersen...
, Wendy Froud
Wendy Froud
Wendy Froud, born Wendy Midener in Detroit, is an American doll-artist, sculptor, and puppet-maker, best known for her work creating Yoda for "The Empire Strikes Back" and creatures for the Jim Henson films The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth...
, Jen Delyth
Jen Delyth
Jen Delyth , Welsh-born artist and author, is a contemporary Celtic Art illustrator and author who has contributed to the Celtic folk tradition with her original Celtic art and designs based on Celtic mythology and symbolism...
, Terri Windling
Terri Windling
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award...
, and Amy Brown
Amy Brown
Amy Brown is a popular fantasy and fairy artist. Her career began in the 1990s, and today her watercolor designs appear on t-shirts, calendars, and buttons; and people have been using her images for tattoos. Two books of her artwork have been published, The Art of Amy Brown and The Art of Amy...
. In addition to a diverse annual lineup of musicians and artists, each Faerieworlds Festival features a vending village of juried crafters from around the world.
Impact
Each year, the Faerieworlds Festival benefits a community organizationCommunity organization
Community organizations are civil society non-profits that operate within a single local community. They are essentially a subset of the wider group of nonprofits. Like other nonprofits they are often run on a voluntary basis and are self funded...
whose work betters the future for coming generations. Past beneficiaries have included environmental organizations and public Waldorf and charter school
Charter school
Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...
s. Faerieworlds differs from many events in the fantasy genre in its ecological and social focus and message by utilizing recycled printed materials, compostable foodware, and featuring a food court of organic and vegetarian food
Vegetarian cuisine
Vegetarian cuisine refers to food that meets vegetarian standards by not including meat and animal tissue products. For lacto-ovo vegetarianism , eggs and dairy products such as milk and cheese are permitted...
vendors.
FaerieCon
The creators of Faerieworlds held an event on the east coast called FaerieCon International, which took place on October 10 and 12 weekend, 2007-2008 in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Convention CenterPennsylvania Convention Center
The Pennsylvania Convention Center is a multi-use public facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which is designed to accommodate conventions, exhibitions, conferences and other events.-History:...
. Special guests included Brian Froud
Brian Froud
Brian Froud is an English fantasy illustrator. He lives and works in Devon with his wife, Wendy Froud, who is also a fantasy artist...
, Wendy Froud
Wendy Froud
Wendy Froud, born Wendy Midener in Detroit, is an American doll-artist, sculptor, and puppet-maker, best known for her work creating Yoda for "The Empire Strikes Back" and creatures for the Jim Henson films The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth...
, Kinuko Craft, John Matthews, Caitlin Matthews, Charles Vess
Charles Vess
Charles Vess is an American fantasy artist and comic-book illustrator who has specialized in the illustration of myths and fairy tales. His illustrations are strongly influenced by the work of artists and illustrators such as Arthur Rackham and Alphonse Mucha...
, Holly Black
Holly Black
Holly Black née Riggenbach is an American writer and editor, best known for writing The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi.-Early life and education:...
, Ellen Kushner
Ellen Kushner
Ellen Kushner is an American writer of fantasy novels, who for many years was the host of the radio program Sound & Spirit, produced by WGBH in Boston and distributed by Public Radio International.- Background and personal life :...
, Delia Sherman
Delia Sherman
Cordelia Caroline Sherman , known professionally as Delia Sherman, is a fantasy writer and editor. Her novel The Porcelain Dove won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award...
, Michael Hague
Michael Hague
Michael Hague is an American illustrator, primarily of children's fantasy books.-Biography:Among the books he has illustrated are classics such as The Wind in the Willows, The Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit and the stories of Hans Christian Andersen...
, and many more fantasy artists and authors. FaerieCon moved to Baltimore in 2009 and took place at the Baltimore Marriott Hunt Valley Inn in 2009 and 2010 featuring guests including Charles DeLint, Charles Vess, Brian and Wendy Froud, Helena Nelson Reed and more, as well as musical guests Faun, Priscilla Hernandez, Woodland and Cecile Corbel. FaerieCon 2011 will take place on November 4th-6th, 2011 at the Baltimore Marriott Hunt Valley Inn.