Episode 140 of RFC

One Last Look At FestivALL 2011, Plus Two Great Outdoor Shows This Weekend

July 1, 2011 by rudy panucci

Larry Groce, the Pope of FestivALL

FestivALL 2011, That’s A Wrap!

Up at the top of today’s PopCulteer you will find the eighth and final episode of Radio Free Charleston’s video rewind of FestivALL 2011. FestivALl is such a wonderful part of Charleston that we felt it deserved extensive coverage. And extensive it was, with just under three hours of FestivALL crammed into our eight-episode trip through the art.

I hope our loyal RFC viewers can appreciate what a ridiculous undertaking this was. Your PopCulteer has been slaving away at the editing computer for the last two weeks, getting by with only a couple of hours of sleep a night,  just so we could bring you our take on FestivALL 2011 as quickly as possible.

Of course, we had a good reason for doing things this way. We knew that if we didn’t get this stuff out to you as soon as possible we’d run a good risk of having it languish on one of our hard drives, unseen by human eyes.

PopCult is not done with FestivALL, though. Next week The PopCulteer will present a huge photo essay and our thoughts on how FestivALL played out this year.

Tyrannasaurus Balloonenstein

But we still have today’s episode of RFC to discuss.  This is the longest of our FEstivALl shows, clocking in at over 33 minutes, and it has the most footage tossed in with the music and theater clips.

Eamon Hardiman's "Lonely" Silent Film

Our performers include Joseph Hale, T.J. King and The Kingfish Five, Charleston Stage Company, Kathleen Coffee, Contemporary Youth Arts Company, The Velvet Nomads, WATT 4, Christopher Nelson and Albert Perrone. Intercut with the musical performances you will find scenes from The Art Parade, The Art Fair, The Antique Fair, Dizzy Doc’s Balloon Sculpture, Eamon Hardiman’s silent film, The Peer to Pier project and a few other surprises.

Chriss Nelson works on the Peer to Pier project

Even though we have unleashed three hours worth of Radio Free Charleston FestivALL coverage, we really only scratched the surface. There were so many events that we didn’t make it to this year. But we think we brought you a pretty good sample of some of the cool things that took place around town.

Production of these shows was a bit of a marathon for your PopCulteer. I could not have done this without the invaluable help, support and assistance of Melanie Larch, who was by my side running camera for most of the production of these episodes. I also want to thank our additional camerpeople, Steven Allen Adams and Liz McCormick, who pitched in to help record The Derick Kirk Memorial Concert, and Lee Harrah who was our still photographer on the final Saturday of FestivALL.

Alex Bannerman from "The Salon Play"

But the editing and post-production was all me, and I’m exhausted. So I feel that I’ve earned a little vacation from Radio Free Charleston.

It’s going to have to wait a week. You see, Monday is not only the Fourth of July. It’s also the fifth anniversary of this current video incarnation of Radio Free Charleston.

I can’t let that go by without an observation.  So you can expect a special anniversary show next week, then we’ll disappear until August. What will be in RFC 141?

You’ll have to check back next week and see.