Fall 2008 - Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

6
Children visit a tent full of kids’ activities during the Chesapeake
Folk Festival, some making their own crabbing permits before
trying their hand at chicken-necking and fishing off the dock.
Boat builder Dave McQuay shares his memories of log canoe sailor
Jimmy Wilson as part of the “Shore Stories” narrative stage.
First
Chesapeake
You never know what to expect from a first-time event
or what will happen when you change a long-standing festival.
In the case of the first Chesapeake Folk Festival,
which was held on Saturday, July 26, the result was success
on all fronts.
Attendance for the day topped 2,000 visitors—something
the former summer festival for CBMM never accomplished—and
the diversity of the crowd and their enthusiastic
comments about the day and the event signaled a job
well done.
“The acid test of a good event is the sense of involvement,
ownership, and downright comfort, which was palpable,”
said Elaine Eff of Maryland Traditions, the lead sponsor of
the festival.
The day boasted near-perfect weather and outdoor and
indoor activities for visitors of all ages. Community conversations,
boat rides, films, great music and traditional
demonstrations—dipnet making, boat building, pottery and
the secrets to a delicious Smith Island Cake—all made for
an exceptional day at CBMM.
Festival-goers congregate under the Hooper Strait Lighthouse as
they prepare to board the skipjack H. M. Krentz for a boat ride.