Folkmoot Parade

Friday's are usually my husband's day off so we try to do something fun as a family. We were told by some good friends that we should check out the Folkmoot Parade.
Unless you are from the area, you've probably never heard of Folkmoot before. Before this week we hadn't either. Folkmoot is an international festival that celebrates different cultural heritages through that countries dance and music. This festival is held in a little town not far from where we live now, so we traveled there today to be at the parade. We arrived in town early to stake out our claim on the parade route. We set up our chairs in the shade (or so we thought) and then went to walk around town a bit.
This town has lots of great shops and has one of my very favorite children's boutiques, Just Ducky. And better yet, they were having a sale!!! I got a pair of L'Amour sandals for L. for next summer for $12 and got baby boy a pair of swim trunks for less than $10 for next year also. I was excited.
We ate lunch at Nick & Nate's, a great pizza place.

We then went back to our seats to wait on the parade to begin. We really didn't know what to expect at all. It was so much fun -- aside from the fact that the spot we staked out wasn't such a great spot. Turns out with the two hours that passed we placed our selves right in it! We all got too much sun!

The first country to go by was Argentina. They stopped right in front of us and did their dance.











The next country was Belarus. They didn't really dance, they just swayed and sang to their music.



Next, was Nova Scotia. I loved this group. With their scottish dance and their bagpipes.

Then came Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). Their dance was very unusual and had lots of cymbals in their music.

Next came France. Check out the costumes. They definitely weren't what I expected from France. I don't know what I expected, but not this really.

I was also fascinated by the male dancers with them on stilts....wearing heavy fur coats and leg covers no less.

After France was Japan. One of the sweet girls from Japan gave one of my girls a little toy that she was handing out.

The next dancers were from Russia.

This lady in white thought my girls were the parade I guess. She stopped and had a friend take her picture with them. Too funny!

The next group was from Slovakia.
They got children out of the crowd to come and dance with them. I was surprised that all three of mine chose to go out and dance with them.



And, last but certainly not least was the group from Trinidad.
These costumes left my 5 year old asking if the next time she comes to a parade if she can wear her swimsuit......ahem....No, no that isn't a good idea!
Check out the spider woman! And last but not least came this male dancer bearing the flag of Trinidad.


I dressed my children in their patriotic outfits today not knowing it would be a big deal. I did it for two reasons. One - it is easier to keep up with the three of them in a crowd when they are dressed alike. Two - I wanted them to get more wear out of them than just 4th of July. As we waited for the parade to start, people were handing out American flags for us to wave at the performers. LOTS of the performers took pictures of my girls. I am assuming it was because they were wearing their "American attire". I found it so ironic that I was there taking pictures of them in their traditional dance attire and they took pictures of us from in the parade lines.

This is a two week festival and it looks like there are many more fun things to attend before it ends on July 27th. I am hoping to attend a few more of them and if you find yourselves over in Western NC, you should check it all out!

This turned into a LONG post. Sorry and if you are still here, thanks for reading!