From now until the end of June we will post at least once a day with details on what you can experience at home during this pandemic year for Charleston’s annual festival of all arts. For 2020, FestivALL is when The Internet Becomes A Work Of Art. Every day we will bring you up to date on this year’s VirtuALL FestivALL, plus we will flash back to some of our video coverage from previous years, and I will dig into the archives for one post in the Monday Morning Art Exhibit, collecting some of my favorite pieces from the nearly fifteen years that I’ve been posting my original work here in PopCult.

Saturday we have two big events. At Noon, there is the Virtual Smoke on the Water Chili Cookoff. I will be honest with you, I’m not a big fan of chili. I’m in the mood for a bowl about once every seven or twelve years, and even then, only in the dead of winter.

I think it takes a peculiar mindset to subject yourself to painfully-spiced cold-weather food on what are usually among the hottest days of summer, but if you are into that sort of epicurian masochism, then this is the event for you. It’s not my place to judge.

The Virtual Smoke On The Water authorities will have four bands providing music via the FestivALL YouTube channel, and have figured out some way to give out cash prizes.

Like I said, aside from the music this is all outside my realm of understanding, but if it interests you, you can find details on how to get involved HERE.

Of more universal appeal is a Mountain Stage Special Broadcast; FestivALL Favorites.This is a specially curated two-hour episode of Mountain Stage with Larry Groce, featuring favorite performances from FestivALL’s past. Performances from: Wood Brothers, Todd Snider, Lucius, and more. If you’re interest, this special will be aired statewide on WVPB radio networks.

Other FestivALL events for today include your last chance to take in The Alban Arts Center’s Eugene O’Neill Project, which I told you about a week ago last Friday.  You can also participate in the CAMC “Run For Your Life” virtual run/walk. The Show Your Pride window display contest is already underway, and you can vote HERE. Ice cream and the arts is also underway, and details for this coloring contest for kids can be found HERE.  The Virtual Art Fair will open on June 14th on the FestivALL website – check it regularly for the gallery and links to shop your favorite WV artisans this summer.

You can also vote on The Artbus, check out the Art-for-ALL Kids’ Juried Art Exhibition look into the “Faces of First Responders” Tribute Mural and teens can participate in Life: Unedited. FestivALL is off to a strong VirtuALL start!

The FestivALL Flashback

2011 was the year where I had the insane idea of cover the holy hell out of FestivALL, and trying to present it in an almost daily form as episodes of Radio Free Charleston.  Today we’re bringing you one of these shows that takes music recorded at the Derick Kirk Memorial Concert and combines it with dance recorded all over town during FestivALL. Our music performed live at Capitol Roasters is provided by the Velvet Nomads, Comparsa, and The Voodoo Katz.

The Monday Morning Art Exhibit

This piece is from November, 2013, and is a digital painting I call “Searching.”  The model for the triple-stacked silhouette you see is none other than my imaginary daughter, Kitty Killton, in a pose I snapped at an edition of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-art School the prior spring. I wanted to draw a contrast between Kitty’s pose and one of my geometrical abstract backgrounds.

Click to see the image larger.

Check PopCult tomorrow for more updates on VirtuALL FestivALL, plus our Flashback Videos and Monday Morning Art Exhibit.