Moss Rock Festival adds interactive experiences
The Moss Rock Festival in The Preserve community in Hoover has been a place where art and nature collide with innovative and environmentally friendly designs and smart living concepts for 11 years.
And this year, in the “eco-creative” festival’s 12th year, organizers hope to add even more interactive experiences and live demonstrations for festival-goers, Director Eileen Kunzman said.
The event, scheduled for Nov. 4-5, this year will feature open-air painting where several artists re-create images of the festival on canvas in real time, Kunzman said.
There also are plans to have a giant mural being created live at the festival, a chainsaw carving group on site to showcase their skills, as well as a demonstration of 3-D printing, Kunzman said. “I think people will have fun watching that happen,” she said.
One of the highlights of the festival is the artist row, where more than 100 artists and designers display their creations made using a wide variety of mediums. Many of the artists either use natural or recycled materials to make their creations or are inspired by or depict nature in their work.
This year’s featured artist is Tracie Noles-Ross, a Birmingham area artist with more than 30 years of experience under her belt. Ross uses a variety of mediums and materials to create objects that reflect her observations of the natural world and her place in that world.
Many of her works feature close-up images of plants, animals, birds and insects, layered with touches that are designed to show humans’ connection and responsibility to nature, according to her website.
She likes to place people “in the thickety brambles and hedges of the mysterious wild places where we don’t always feel we belong,” her website says.
She won the 2001 Award of Excellence from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Women’s Studies Program and has a sculpture on display at the Alabama Veterans Memorial honoring Alabama veterans of the 20th century.
“She is pretty unique,” Kunzman said. “Her work is very sensitive, intuitive, beautiful.”
One of the highlights of the design area will be a tiny home by Atkinson Cottages from Childersburg, said Jess Marie Walker, the special projects coordinator for Fine Art Services, the group that puts on the festival.
Other exhibitors include the Earth Creations clothing store in Bessemer, Biscuit Leather Co. in Homewood and SoleMate Sox, a Birmingham company that sells socks that have magnets in them that are designed to keep pairs of socks together as laundry is done.
The “smart living” market will include artisan gourds from Thompsons’ Orchard in Cullman, artisan pasta from Bare Naked Noodles and sheep cheeses from Dayspring Dairy in Gallant.
The nature and outdoors area will include exhibitors such as Alabama Outdoors, Alabama Geocachers Association, the Sierra Club, Friends of Moss Rock, the Greater Birmingham Humane Society mobile adoption unit and the University of Alabama Press, which will be sharing 25 nature-related books, Walker said.
A greenways and pathways expo area will feature groups such as Birmingham Audubon, Freshwater Land Trust, Red Mountain Park, Southeastern Climbers Coalition, Turkey Creek Nature Preserve, Redemptive Cycles, GASP (clean air organization) and Zyp BikeShare.
Those groups will share information about the plethora of trail systems in the greater Birmingham area and master plans for further trail development, Walker said.
There also will be an aspiring gardeners area that features gardening experts with tips and gardening products. Experts helping out there will include people from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and Central Alabama Permaculture Enthusiasts.
Other outdoor activities at the festival will include guided hikes in the 350-acre Moss Rock Preserve nature park, fly fishing workshops, rock climbing and a rope bridge to be built by Boy Scouts.
A Wonderkid Studios area will allow children to participate in hands-on art workshops, and students from seven schools in Hoover and Hueytown will display “coral reef” creations made out of recycled objects as part of a classroom project.
The Moss Rock Festival is not a music festival, but there will be live music on the Village Green, including rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, pop, folk and singer-songwriters, Walker said.
Performers scheduled for Saturday include Ritual Eyes, Uptown Rounders, Startle the Heavens, The High Fidelics, a jazz ensemble from the Alabama School of Fine Arts, Little Girl and Pink Pyramids. Sunday’s lineup includes Narrador, JQ One Man Big Band, The Matchcoats, Cheshire Possum, The Official Clutch Band and Startle the Heavens.
And a festival wouldn’t be complete without food. The Café by the Woods will feature food trucks and other vendors, including Catering by Lanetta, Eugene’s Hot Chicken, Greek Tavern, Karen’s Candy Kitchen, Lulu’s Cheese Bread, Magic City Sweet Ice, Pazzo’s Big Slice Pizza, Rae Rae’s Catering, Steel City Pops, Taqueria Mexico, Tea Town Alabama and Yarbrough Festival Food Service.
A “sweetery” area that has been indoors in past years is being moved outdoors this year and will include Consider It Joy, Emily’s Heirloom Pound Cakes, Gluten-Free Goodies, Greek Kouzina, Ivory LeShore’s Gourmet and Karen’s Candy Kitchen.
The festival also includes a beer garden on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. and 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. The beer garden will include more than 50 selections from at least 20 brewers and organically-farmed wines, Kunzman said. Tickets for the beer garden are $25 through 3 p.m. on Nov. 3 and $35 at the gate. Beer garden tickets include admission to the festival.
Last year was the first year that organizers charged admission to the Moss Rock Festival, and they only did that out of necessity — to keep putting on a top-notch festival and finish in the black, Kunzman said.
“It was just the shot in the arm we needed,” she said. “Honestly, it didn’t phase anyone.”
The festival had about 8,000 people in attendance last year, which Kunzman estimated was “pretty level” with previous years.