PITTSBORO — Gilda McDaniel keeps games like “Mailbox Madness” and “Fowl Shot” in her garage all year round. Strewn next to the games are dozens of painted wooden critters and beanbags of all shapes and colors.
While she may sound like some kind of hoarder, her garage is stocked in preparation for a single day each year: ClydeFest.
“This day stays with me all year,” McDaniel said. “It’s so special for so many reasons.”
McDaniel, who also serves as the board president of the Chatham Arts Council, has assisted with the local arts festival for families for more than 20 years, and her favorite day of the year is quickly approaching. The event, which this year will be on Saturday, April 22, combines her three favorite things: her dear friend Clyde Jones — the namesake of the festival — the Chatham Arts Council and Chatham County.
“The event follows the inspiration of Clyde, whose motto was always, ‘It’s all about the kids,’” McDaniel said.
Jones, she added, was the type of old-fashioned man who said we should go back to the “horse-and-buggy days.” He craved a simple outdoor life and wanted kids to experience the joys of getting messy while making art. It was in this spirit that ClydeFest was born all those years ago.
The event originally got started when Jones approached Chatham Arts Council pushing for a festival for kids in the Bynum area. Since then, it’s evolved into a unique event for the county, and the state. CAC brings in performers, artists and nonprofits from as far away as Georgia to participate in the festivities.
“Clyde is the most open-minded, kind and generous person,” McDaniel said, who’s been a close friend of Jones for many years. “That is really the nature of this event, it comes from the heart all the way through.”
Jones recently celebrated his 86th birthday on April 1, and plans to attend this year’s event to cap his month of celebrations.
New location, same passion
This year, the 21st annual ClydeFest, is moving away from its longtime home of the Bynum ballfield and to Pittsboro’s Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center.
The change in location was made to improve accessibility to the event, according to Cheryl Chamblee, CAC’s artistic director. She said the rising attendance at the festival meant there was a need for more parking space than Bynum could accommodate. The new location is also more centralized for more Chatham residents, meaning more locals could experience the arts festival.
Last year, the event had more than 2,000 attendees and organizers are expecting more this year with the larger location.
“Being at the Bynum ballfield for all these years has been super magical,” Chamblee said. “And we are incredibly grateful to the Bynum community because it’s a big deal for them to have so many people in their community on a weekend.”
But as much love and magic as that ballfield holds, Chamblee said it just doesn’t hold the number of people — or parking spaces — needed for an event that has gotten as big as ClydeFest.
Accessible arts
While navigating the logistics of the new location hasn’t been easy, Chamblee said she believes it will pay off because the event will be accessible to more people.
Providing increased access and reducing potential barriers to the arts has been a longstanding goal of CAC. Last year’s event marked the first time ClydeFest was free to all participants, which is continuing this year.
One of the reasons the event is able to be open to all is because of sponsors like The Jester Group at Baird, a family wealth management firm in Chapel Hill. The firm has been the naming sponsor of the festival for the past four years. Tracie Legg, who works at Jester Group, has volunteered at ClydeFest with her family for several years. She said she finds the event valuable because of the way it engages all generations.
“My kids, who are grown now, still have their painted critters on the shelf,” she said. “We know how important the arts can be and this event just really embodies everything you think kids should be doing these days.”
The new location also provides opportunities for innovations to the two-decade-old festival including new performing artists like a youth sitar ensemble, a West African drum circle and a performance by the Jordan-Matthews High School a cappella group the Golden Tones.
The festival will also feature artists who have become ClydeFest staples like the Bouncing Bulldogs jump rope team and bluegrass duo Carolina Lightnin’. Alice Zincone, who plays standup bass for the duo, says the group has played the festival for more than a decade.
“We aspire to have a sense of kid-like enjoyment in our music,” Zincone said. “I think that’s what Clyde inspired in us, and what he provides to families across the county with this event.”
Broad strokes
The magic of ClydeFest also fits into the broader work of CAC. The council aims to foster a passion for the arts among all residents in the county through intentional arts investments and educating kids through the arts.
ClydeFest fits both of those missions because it is a one-day, family-oriented event where the whole point is to make things together. The event isn’t about having proper materials, or the best pens in the class, it’s about art with materials that are close at hand.
“We have a vision at Chatham Arts Council, in which every member of the Chatham community would have access to the arts,” Chamblee said. “During a time when mental health for kids and mental health for grownups is really challenged, the arts can be a big part of the solution there.”
The data supports Chamblee’s hypothesis. According to a 2016 Drexel University study, making art for at least 45 minutes, especially in group settings, significantly reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol in participants.
ClydeFest offers the opportunity to do exactly that — make art with other people.
“This is a one-day intervention,” Chamblee said. “It is community building, it is place-making, it is super unique and there is nothing else like it.”
Volunteers and participants in the event agree with Chamblee’s praises. Debbie Bousquet has volunteered with the event since 2003. She comes every year because ClydeFest is what she calls “a special, magical festival.”
“The day just really embodies Clyde Jones,” Bousquet said. “He feels very passionately that this is for the ‘youngins,’ as he would say, and I think everyone who volunteers, participates and performs lives up to that model.”
All told, the event takes more than 200 volunteers to pull off. Bousquet, who has been the volunteer coordinator for this year’s event, said the setup for the Saturday event begins on the Thursday prior with more than 150 people setting up tents, tables, art supplies and vendor stations. The day of the event has more than 60 volunteers from a plethora of local organizations who exchange three-hour shifts, beginning at 7:30 a.m. with field setup and ending with takedown which usually ends around 6 p.m.
“You see kids that were little kids 20 years ago who are now coming back to volunteer,” Bousquet said. “That tradition being something that families want to continue to be involved in is really cool.”
Reporter Ben Rappaport can be reached at brappaport@chathamnr.com or on Twitter @b_rappaport