Posted June 25, 200717 yr Like a countercultural Brigadoon this hippy “village” comes to life once a year on a weekend close to the Summer Solstice, in a city park near downtown Columbus. What makes ComFest (short for Community Festival) different from other outdoor urban festivals that I’ve seen in Dayton, Louisville, and Cincinnati, is the lack of corporate, municipal and business sponsorship, and the explicitly political and “activist” content. This is best illustrated by the various vendor booths The AFL-CIO table. They are doing some sort of lobbying effort to reauthorize some childcare funds Some sort of activist group doing voter registration…the Columbus Progressives or something… And the AFL-CIO;s erstwhile political ally: The Democratic Party. The Natural Law party. I’ve heard they had some sort of connection to Kucinich last time around. Not sure about now…. Though the Republicans were not represented the Republicans Who Like to Smoke Dope were….. X The Communist bookstore from Cleveland always has a booth. That this place is from Cleveland, and that it survives in Cleveland, meaning there is enough support for it stay open, says something about Cleveland….not sure what it says, but it says something... They do have a good lefty book selection, though one sometimes has to endure them pushing the word from Chairman Bob This is some sort of Anarchist group. The guy told me that they are doing indy-media things. I think they are flying the old flag of the Catalonian anarchists from the Spanish Civil War. They organized or participated in an antiwar street demonstration on High Street later that night. Medical Marijuana, yeah right….. The Sierra Club. The lady there said that someone came by at night and dumped their tables with all their political buttons and stickers. They thought some were stolen but it turns out none were Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed. What a mouthful! FLOW is a fortunate acronym. Here are some activist things that are not so partisan. I particularly like the Global Gallery as they are a project of the Mennonite Church, showing that faith-based activism can also be progressive. I think this is a pacifist group The pro-abortion/birth control group… Veterans of the Peace Corps. Yay Great Society. Something about starving children in Africa? Petition for more sick days Hmmm…. I think this is some sort of Marxist front group, but they are not as obvious about it as the Communist bookstore people. One of the reasons I return to ComFest is for the Blues Garage. Well, the Blues Garage was shut this year, but the Blues Alliance did have a booth. I was really pissed-off that they didn’t have this blues venue this year, and will probably e-mail the Comfest people about it. The three homeless advocates tables. Two of these were selling water and iced tea as fund raisers When I saw this I thought “dance” as in ballet and contemporary dance. It turns out these are the “adult dancers” trying to repeal that new strip club law. These people told me that Bono is affiliated with them somehow. I told them I really appreciated their graphic identity. I first heard about these nonprofit bike shops at that Shrinking Cities exhibit up in Detroit. This is the Columbus one. Petition to get better school funding. This was a Christian group of some sort. Occasionally one will see progressive aspects of Christianity pop up from time to time, as with the Mennonites unthread. I have no idea…..but its simple…. Some sort of radio thing…. Ecology is always “in” at Comfest. One of the things to come for, that probably is what draws the people in, is the multiple music stages, where one can sample the local music scene, of various types of music…. ….as well as impromptu music out on the street and in the park Don’t forget the Art Cars Comfest is very well attended. Perhaps this could only work in a city with a huge state university, with 40,000 students, plus the faculty and instructors and staff and assorted hangers-on. Though the merch booths are mostly apolitical, there is often a bit of political content in the t-shirts sold Another entertaining aspect of Comfest is the fashion. In fact one could do a pix thread of “Interesting T-shirts of ComFest”
June 25, 200717 yr I was in Cincinnati during this but it looks like a great time! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
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