One of my favorite events of last year was the May Faire that was hosted by the Waldorf School of Orange County and it’s almost that time again. This year’s May Faire will be May 1, 2010. I am definitely going again. It is everything you could want in a family-oriented holiday celebration.
Imagine hundreds of children (and parents!) dressed in white and wearing flower crowns. There were flowers EVERYWHERE! Honestly, you’ve never seen so many flowers in one place in your life.
Every grade performed a May Pole dance of increasing difficulty, until the sixth grade did some kind of spider dance that wound the entire pole in an intricate pastel pattern – and they UNdanced the pole. It was fascinating and impressive to watch.
The audience, on picnic blankets, was rapt. None of the vendor or food booths were opened until after the performances were over.
Folks entering the Faire. The flowers smelled wonderful and set a festive, gay tone.
After the grade school performances there was a small bluegrass band called Dogwood performing for the rest of the day – with a CALLER! She called square dances, Virginia reels, line dances, and other simple fun dances for the whole family, all day long. That alone was more than worth the cost of admission (which I don’t remember precisely – but it seemed small – under ten dollars.)
There were also some craft booths (making a flower garland was free – making a small bumblebee from wool roving cost a dollar), game booths, vendors of artisan wooden crafts, and other natural products, and the food? Well, you might expect some hippy vegetarian grub, and while that was an option, there were lovely grilled turkey panini sandwiches and heaps and heaps of buttery baked treats for sale. You could also choose grilled eggplant panini – yummmm. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food, considering that it was a school fundraiser picnic – but I shouldn’t have been – everything detail of this event was deliberately and consciously planned. I even caught myself wanting to meet the organizer and offering to be her apprentice!
It was all very very sweet and I look forward to attending this year. Christian will enjoy it even more this time around. Maybe we’ll see you there?