Moss Rock Festival back at Hoover Met for 2nd year

The Moss Rock Festival is returning to the Hoover Metropolitan Complex for the second year in a row after The Preserve’s neighborhood association and management decided to end their relationship with the festival, co-director Alex Kunman said.

Festival organizers were sad to hear they couldn’t return to The Preserve but thankful for a long history of support, Kunzman said.

The festival was held there for 14 years, next to the 350-acre Moss Rock Preserve nature park, but last year was moved to the lower parking lot next to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium due to COVID-19.

Organizers last year said they were concerned about the problems that came with having to shuttle people from the usual parking area at Prince of Peace Catholic Church. There was concern about the shuttle buses becoming a means of transmission for the COVID-19 disease, and there is less need for shuttle buses at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex because there is so much parking right at the stadium, Kunzman said.

The convenient parking also made it much easier for people to take items they purchased from artists back to their vehicles, he said.

Additionally, there is more room at the Met to space artists apart and have wider walkways and more spacious eating areas for social distancing, he said.

Festival organizers encourage people to wear masks, but masks are optional for people who are fully vaccinated and practice social distancing, Kunzman said. He encouraged people to check the festival website — mossrockfestival.com — for any updates regarding COVID-19 protocols.

The 16th annual event is scheduled for Nov. 6-7. Organizers bill it as an “eco-creative” festival that celebrates art, design and nature and how they intersect and complement one another.

Featured artists

One of the highlights of the festival each year are the 100 or so juried artists whose work depicts nature or is influenced or inspired by nature, who are recycling or repurposing objects into their art, or who are working with natural materials such as wood, clay, glass and fiber to create fine crafts.

This year’s featured artists are Yvonne Miller and Stephan Hochhuber, a couple from Bethlehem, Georgia, who incorporate recycling and nature-inspired subject matter into their art. They use discarded materials such as hand-cut vintage papers, fabrics, sheet music, tickets, old photos and thread and combine them with gold leaf and acrylic paint to create layered art collages and other mixed media works of art.

The subjects of their collages vary from nests to classic pieces of clothing and whimsical representations of nature, plants, celestial beings and animals.

They got the idea for nest collages by watching how resourceful a bird could be as it pulled a piece of a plastic shopping bag and a sliver of a screen door to make a nest in their backyard.

A special addition at this year’s festival is a photography exhibit called “Landscapes: Our Alabama,” a collection of large-format photographs that speak to the state’s natural wonders, conservation and the conversation that a work of art can stimulate. The exhibit is being curated by UAB photography professor Sonja Rieger and photographers Virginia Jones and Sydney Foster.

Crescent Stage Performances

Saturday

► 11 a.m.: Hope Wendell (Americana singer- songwriter)

► Noon: Rude and True (folk duet)

► 1 p.m.: Orange Bunny (folk)

► 2 p.m.: Alabama School of Fine Arts jazz ensemble

► 3 p.m.: M.U.A.D. (electronic)

► 4 p.m.: The Starlings (harmony-driven ambient folk-rock Americana)

Sunday

► 11 a.m.: Khloe Isabella (gospel)

► 11:30 a.m.: Sowmya Karra Natyananda (Indian dancer)

► Noon: Fee-Fee Redmon (jazz)

► 1 p.m.: Dala Dance Co. (tribal belly dancing)

► 1:35 p.m.: Alabama Poet Laureate Ashley Jones (spoken word)

► 2 p.m.: Iron Giant Percussion

► 3 p.m.: Cheyloe (alt-country)

Design and nature

The Moss Rock Festival also focuses on unique designs and this year will feature Storyteller Overland, a company that retrofits Mercedes vans for outdoor exploration. The company will have at least one of its vans on site for festival goers to check out, Kunzman said.

There also will be a Smart Living Market that features natural food, home, body and health items.

Exhibitors in that market will include Alabama Peanut Co. featuring never-canned Southern boiled peanuts and flavored boiled peanuts, Chicken & Sweets Southern Yardbird handcrafted jams that use locally sourced fruits and vegetables, Walden Farmacy and its small-batch sustainable herbal medicines, and Energy Alabama, a nonprofit that advocates for clean energy production and helps businesses, schools, nonprofits and individuals decrease energy usage.

Nature exhibitors this year will include the House Plant Collective that sells houseplants from Birmingham’s Avondale neighborhood and a mobile bus, Foliage Designs Systems and Alabama Outdoors and the Alabama Wildlife Center and its birds of prey and other wildlife being rehabilitated.

“They always bring beautiful animals for people to get up close and personal to,” Kunzman said.

There also will be a Wonderkid Studio with interactive workshops where children can participate in art projects inspired by nature and recycling. The plan this year is for children to help build a large-scale nest made out of recycled materials that will be on site, Kunzman said.

2021 Moss Rock Festival

WHERE: Hoover Metropolitan Stadium lower parking lot,

5310 Stadium Trace Parkway

WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 6, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 7,

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

COST: $10 advance; $12 at gate; children ages 15 and younger are free

PARKING: Free at Hoover Met Stadium

WEB: mossrockfestival.com

Music and food

Last year’s festival featured music selected by Birmingham Mountain Radio, but this year live musicians and dancers will be present again on the Crescent Stage, he said.

The Café by the Woods will feature American food such as hamburgers, hot dogs and sausage by Rae Rae’s Catering and food trucks, such as Cousins Maine Lobster (which features lobster rolls, lobster mac n cheese and lobster tacos) and Aww Shucks (which features gourmet fire-roasted corn). Other food trucks include Encore Rouge, Tamale Queen, J&J Elegant Pastries, Candy Cones, Sno Biz and TRLV Love Koffee.

For those with a sweet tooth, the Sweetery area will include The Joyful Food Co., Nana Bakes, Nothing Bundt Cakes and Over the Top Toffee.

Last year, organizers switched from an on-site beer garden to an off-site beer trail, but this year the beer garden is back, featuring 50 to 65 different brews from about 19 breweries, Kunzman said.

Tasting sessions will be noon-2 p.m. and 2:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday and 1-3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets for the beer garden cost $30 before Nov. 5 and $40 at the door and include admission to the festival as a whole and a 13-ounce Belgian tasting glass.

Editor's note: This article was updated on Nov. 2 with information that festival organizers are encouraging people to wear masks, but masks are optional for people who are fully vaccinated and social distancing. Organizers encourage people to check the festival website -- mossrockfestival.com -- for any updates regarding COVID-19 protocols.