Vendors selling food, drinks, jewelry and more on Sunday during Seymour’s pre-party festival for the total solar eclipse at Crossroads Park and other downtown locations.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Southern Indiana Taiko performing Sunday during Seymour’s pre-party festival for the total solar eclipse at Crossroads Park and other downtown locations.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Southern Indiana Taiko drummers perform “Rollercoaster” Sunday during Seymour’s pre-party festival for the total solar eclipse at Crossroads Park and other downtown locations.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Gail Nowels gathers the workshop’s attention during about Taiko (drumming) lesson Sunday during Seymour’s pre-party festival for the total solar eclipse at Crossroads Park and other downtown locations.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
The Columbus-based Southern Indiana Taiko performance group gave a lesson about Taiko (drumming) on Sunday during Seymour’s pre-party festival for the total solar eclipse at Crossroads Park and other downtown locations.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Gail Nowels with the Columbus-based Southern Indiana Taiko performance group leads her students through a songs on Sunday during Seymour’s pre-party festival for the total solar eclipse at Crossroads Park and other downtown locations.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Jared Reedy | The Tribune
Jared Reedy | The Tribune
Jared Reedy | The Tribune
Jared Reedy | The Tribune
Hundreds of citizens and visitors flocked to downtown Seymour on Sunday for the city’s pre-party festival for the total solar eclipse.
More than 50 food and arts and crafts vendors set up shop at the festival, including local restaurants such as Mi Casa, Schwätzer’s German Restaurant and Lola’s Modern Kitchen.
Sati Babi, based out of Terre Haute and an Oktoberfest favorite, had a stand at the festival as well, and Heather Galbraith, owner of Cottontwine Design, sold special eclipse T-shirts out of her booth.
“We’ve been printing for a couple of weeks now and we’ve been designing for probably three or four weeks,” Galbraith said. “I’ve been printing T-shirts for 26 years now so the city asked me to be a vendor right when they first decided to start planning (the pre-party).”
The Point, a local church, was present at the pre-party with a booth accepting donations for a student mission trip to Juana Díaz in Puerto Rico.
“We’re going to be there mainly doing home-building projects,” mission trip leader Kathleen Deaton said. “43 to 49% of Juana Díaz lives in poverty so we’re going there to help build homes. They’ve had a lot of hurricanes go through there so a lot of people have lost their homes or they don’t have power. So, we’re going there and hoping to spread the word of Jesus and help them rebuild their community.”
Deaton said the best part of the festival was witnessing the generosity of people. Although The Point was selling water for a dollar, many people stopped by the booth just to put money in the donation jar.
Brooke Kinsey-Miller, a graduate student at Indiana University, was particularly excited about the pre-party and Monday’s total eclipse because of her field of study.
“I study galaxies,” Kinsey-Miller said. “I work on star formation across cosmic time with John J. Salzer; he’s a provost professor over at I.U. in the Department of Astronomy.”
Kinsey-Miller she works with a program coordinator at I.U. who had been excitedly looking forward to the total eclipse for more than a year.
Many attendees enjoyed simply reveling in the atmosphere of the pre-party.
“I love seeing everybody out and about and there’s some really good food here,” Seymour native Abigail Wheeler said. “I love the Java Goat and (a) shoutout to Lynn’s Bakery. I love her year-round.”
The event hosted speakers and musical groups as well, including special presentations by Seymour natives Mike Weasner, Mark “The Stargeezer” Williams and Bailee Wolfe at the Knights of Columbus. Weasner and Williams are amateur astronomers, while Wolfe is a research student at Ball State University who spoke about her studies, work and experiences in radio astronomy.
One of the musical groups who performed at the festival was the Columbus-based Southern Indiana Taiko performance group. Worldwide, there are 5,000 Taiko groups and 200 of those are in Indiana. Taiko has a long history in Japan, used for war anthems and now, commonly played at Japanese festivals.
One of the songs performed, “Rollercoaster,” mimics the experience and sounds of a rollercoaster and is an example of a song that can be learned within a few months, just as taiko performer Diana had, only having joined the group three months ago.
After the songs, the performers invited people to join them on stage for a workshop. Gail Nowels guided the group, giving the steps to play along with the mentality of the music: it’s all about respect.
“Respect the drums, respect your classmates,” Nowels said. She had the group bow along with repeat a respectful Japanese greeting.
During the workshop, Nowels explained how to hold the drumming sticks (bachi) with a loose, yet secure grip, how to follow the beats, and finally, how to play an entire song.
Unlike other instruments, taiko drumming is not a written artform, which means playing relies on word of mouth. The taiko players shouted words and phrases in Japanese to indicate which hands to use and how to use them.
The performers also took the time to answer questions, mostly asked by the participating kids. Nowels talked about their traditional outfits worn, including their shoes (tabi), and about the drums. Some of their drums are made of whiskey barrels and can take 80 hours to craft.
At the end of the workshop lesson, the group had the chance to play along with the performers. The taiko drumming performers applauded their students by hitting their bachis together, then lead the group into another respectful bow.
Other musical groups at the festival included Soul Express, Here’s to Ya and American Fools Band: A Tribute to the Music of John Cougar Mellencamp.
The pre-eclipse festival was sponsored by the city of Seymour, Jackson County Visitor Center, Kocolene Development Corp., Schneck Medical Center, UTB Protection Corp., BSM Groups LLC, FPBH Inc., Seymour Main Street, Bob Poynter Family of Dealerships, Conyer Septic & Excavating, Knights of Columbus Council 1252 and Kindred’s Computers Marketing & Design.
Tribune reporter Jared Reedy also contributed to this story.