Experience a feast of whimsy at the bottom of a swamp

It’s a special place where I live.  An island of artists, farmers, and people who, boldly do whatever it is they do– with aplomb.  I could do a whole series just on the spectacular people I know and the unique things that they do: trapeze artists come to mind, people who make and play stand up string instruments consisting of welded metal in the shape of a flower, family owned and operated distilleries, a gourmet traveling wood fired pizza cart, bigger-than-life-size puppet makers… honestly I could go on for a long time here.

That series might come.  But today I’m giving you a taste of a recent delight.  It’s called Swamp Bottom Jamboree. It seems to be a new local tradition.  Here’s how it goes.

Imagine wandering through fields and forest in the dusk and coming across one whimsy visual sight after another.  Women dressed in white fancy gowns silently moving in circles within the darkening forest, a platform where “ghosts” tell stories, hillbilly musicians (many), a jovial badminton game where the participants are dressed in long wool plaid skirts (think England circa 1930), a swamp where appears a boat with three women who paddle in and serenade you by candle light, a woman drinking champagne in a claw foot tub bubble bath at the edge of a field, an “outhouse” that makes music, giant luminaries shaped like crescent moons, fire breathing drums (no kidding).  There’s a taster.

That and this video made by Rob Lawrence