2012 Vinotok Festival Schedule
September 16
Celebration of the Harvest Mother (High Noon) & Crested Butte Farmer's Market
(10 a.m. - 2 p.m.)
Elk Avenue between 1st and 2nd Streets
Free
Kick off Vinotok Week at the Crested Butte Farmer's Market with bountiful local harvests of fresh and organic produce, meats, bread, juices, canned goods and more. Special Vinotok Booth features wreath making, Grump boxes for your Grumps, henna, costume help, costume items for sale, schedules and info, feast tickets and more. Celebration of the Harvest Mother creatively presented by the Crested Butte Dance Collective begins at High Noon featuring mummers, stilters, jesters, forest creatures and wood nymphs presenting this year's very pregnant Harvest Mother with the ancient arts of belly dancing and African harvest dances. All past Harvest Mothers, Harvest Babies and current pregnant women of the community
September 19, 7:00 pm
Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum
Frank Orazem Memorial Storytelling Evening
$5, $3 if you're in costume
Old and mid timers from Crested Butte gather around the pot-bellied stove of the Mountain Heritage Museum to tell tales of epic winter storms and community survival. A great event for families and kids with Croatian potica bread and hot chocolate.
Thursday, September 20
The Botsie Spritzer Memorial Liar’s Contest
8 p.m.
The Eldo
$7 admission, $4 for storytellers and those costumed
The Eldo is transformed and community members gather to tell and hear tall tales, whoppers and adventure stories from the community with prizes for the best liar. The Green Man is announced.
Friday, September 21
Community Feast, Poetry, Music and Handfasting Ceremony
5:30 p.m.
The Depot
$15 in advance; $20 at the door; children pay their age
Everyone is welcome to share in a locally harvested community feast provided by the Crested Butte Farmer's Market. The evening begins at 5:30 with with Marcie Telander performing the ancient, non-denominational Handfasting Ceremony where couples, families, friends, partners and the entire community join in sharing vows and promises of re-commitment for a healthy, transforming future. For further info, please contact Marcie at telander6@aol.com or 349-6509. At 7 p.m. enjoy roast pig and a host of seasonal vegetables. Live music by local musicians follows (bring your musical instruments), wreath making station, and poetry and short story reading by local writers (bring your words). Bring your own utensils and adult libations. Food does sell out. Advance tickets for the feast are being sold at the Crested Butte Farmer's Market Information Booth, the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum and Rumors Coffee & Tea House.
Saturday, September 22
Mumming by cast and crew
begins at 5:30 p.m.
Elk Avenue and adjoining Restaurants and Pubs
Cast and Crew of Vinotok produces a mini-theatre inside Elk Avenue Restaurants to invite people to the performance of the trial
Trial of the Grump
7:30 p.m (ish)
Elk Avenue in front of the Eldo
The community puts the Grump on trial with harvest maiden dances, and a play of the Harvest Mother, Dragon, Knight and Green Man. The performance is amplified and lit so the community can hear and see the tale on the temporary stage.
Procession to the 4-way and Bonfire
8:30 p.m. (ish) Elk Avenue to the 4-way
The cast and crew lead the community down Elk Avenue to the 4-way stop, Grump in tow, to meet his demise. The bonfire and burning of the Grump will begin at approximately 8:30 p.m. and put out by 10.
Vinotok - a summary of the festival
Mumming
Mumming is a dramatic tradition that finds its roots primarily in medieval England and Ireland. Its etymology is thought to derive from the German language of the 13th century and means “a disguised person.” Traditionally, mumming plays were used to mark important stages in the agricultural year and were considered folk plays. They concerned themselves around themes of duality, battles of good and evil, and the resurgence or resurrection of life.
The Vinotok Theatre Troupe, composed of community members, will mum the restaurants and pubs of Elk Avenue, from the Ginger Café to Kochevars. They will perform a small “preview” of the bigger, and later, production, enticing guests of local establishments to join them in the streets for the feature presentation. As tradition dictates, both in medieval times and in Crested Butte, in exchange for their entertainment, mummers receive food and drink.
The cast and crew of Vinotok are important. They allow us to be transported to another world. Through their costuming and song and dance, a magic is created, we are drawn in to a place where reality and imagination cross paths. Become a part of the magic, even as a community member you can dress up and be in the streets…
The Trial of the Grump
The Trial of the Grump takes place on an outdoor stage in front of the Eldo on Elk Avenue. Here we see the true battle of the mumming plays of yore. Sir Hapless represents the encroachment of the industrial world and technology. He is “progress” and the ways of civilized man. Sir Hapless is both foolish and destructive and can also be very dangerous.
To oppose Sir Hapless, the Dragon comes forth, a genderless character representing nature, deep earth, good fortune and everything wild. The dragon is powerful, unpredictable and fierce while also being very beautiful.
The two begin their frightful dual, until the Harvest Mother stops it. The Harvest Mother is Gaia, she is the mother of all, of the earth and all the deities. She is the symbol of fertility, and in the harvest season, of the earth’s bounty. She pronounces, “We can not survive without balance in this world.” When the Harvest Mother talks, people listen.
Meanwhile, the Green Man is frolicking his way through the 12 maidens, representing the 12 months of the year. The Green Man is a promise – that spring and vegetation will return once again. He is the masculine energy to balance the Harvest Mother. The Green Man is virile, vivacious and lusty. But even the maidens can’t sustain the Green Man’s energy, and he is dying.
The Grump becomes the scapegoat. Reminiscent of the effigies of Eastern Europe burned on the boss man’s lawn as a rib, The Grump is everything we want to forget and let go of. He is stuffed with our own grumps, grievances and woes. The Grump, even though given a fair trial by the Magistrate who is representing justice and fairness, is sentenced to burn and with it the negative energy of the community.
And so, as a township we parade to the crossroads of the 4-way stop to rid ourselves of the old, to make way for the new. We dance with abandon around the fire, a plea to the sun to return, to not forget we are here, as we head into the long, dark months of winter.
Vinotok. It is a passageway to help us with the transition from summer to fall. It is a way to bond together as a community, to forget our grievances against ourselves and one another. We come together at Vinotok to celebrate this wild place we live in, so close to the rhythms of nature. We come together to celebrate ourselves as a community, the bounty of an incredible summer with its harvests of wildflowers and warmth as well as a harvest of food. We gather to be thankful of all that we have been given. We dance around the fire to abandon, to let go, to begin anew in the ever cycling circle of life and the seasons. Burn Grump, burn.
–Molly Murfee
Celebration of the Harvest Mother (High Noon) & Crested Butte Farmer's Market
(10 a.m. - 2 p.m.)
Elk Avenue between 1st and 2nd Streets
Free
Kick off Vinotok Week at the Crested Butte Farmer's Market with bountiful local harvests of fresh and organic produce, meats, bread, juices, canned goods and more. Special Vinotok Booth features wreath making, Grump boxes for your Grumps, henna, costume help, costume items for sale, schedules and info, feast tickets and more. Celebration of the Harvest Mother creatively presented by the Crested Butte Dance Collective begins at High Noon featuring mummers, stilters, jesters, forest creatures and wood nymphs presenting this year's very pregnant Harvest Mother with the ancient arts of belly dancing and African harvest dances. All past Harvest Mothers, Harvest Babies and current pregnant women of the community
September 19, 7:00 pm
Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum
Frank Orazem Memorial Storytelling Evening
$5, $3 if you're in costume
Old and mid timers from Crested Butte gather around the pot-bellied stove of the Mountain Heritage Museum to tell tales of epic winter storms and community survival. A great event for families and kids with Croatian potica bread and hot chocolate.
Thursday, September 20
The Botsie Spritzer Memorial Liar’s Contest
8 p.m.
The Eldo
$7 admission, $4 for storytellers and those costumed
The Eldo is transformed and community members gather to tell and hear tall tales, whoppers and adventure stories from the community with prizes for the best liar. The Green Man is announced.
Friday, September 21
Community Feast, Poetry, Music and Handfasting Ceremony
5:30 p.m.
The Depot
$15 in advance; $20 at the door; children pay their age
Everyone is welcome to share in a locally harvested community feast provided by the Crested Butte Farmer's Market. The evening begins at 5:30 with with Marcie Telander performing the ancient, non-denominational Handfasting Ceremony where couples, families, friends, partners and the entire community join in sharing vows and promises of re-commitment for a healthy, transforming future. For further info, please contact Marcie at telander6@aol.com or 349-6509. At 7 p.m. enjoy roast pig and a host of seasonal vegetables. Live music by local musicians follows (bring your musical instruments), wreath making station, and poetry and short story reading by local writers (bring your words). Bring your own utensils and adult libations. Food does sell out. Advance tickets for the feast are being sold at the Crested Butte Farmer's Market Information Booth, the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum and Rumors Coffee & Tea House.
Saturday, September 22
Mumming by cast and crew
begins at 5:30 p.m.
Elk Avenue and adjoining Restaurants and Pubs
Cast and Crew of Vinotok produces a mini-theatre inside Elk Avenue Restaurants to invite people to the performance of the trial
Trial of the Grump
7:30 p.m (ish)
Elk Avenue in front of the Eldo
The community puts the Grump on trial with harvest maiden dances, and a play of the Harvest Mother, Dragon, Knight and Green Man. The performance is amplified and lit so the community can hear and see the tale on the temporary stage.
Procession to the 4-way and Bonfire
8:30 p.m. (ish) Elk Avenue to the 4-way
The cast and crew lead the community down Elk Avenue to the 4-way stop, Grump in tow, to meet his demise. The bonfire and burning of the Grump will begin at approximately 8:30 p.m. and put out by 10.
Vinotok - a summary of the festival
Mumming
Mumming is a dramatic tradition that finds its roots primarily in medieval England and Ireland. Its etymology is thought to derive from the German language of the 13th century and means “a disguised person.” Traditionally, mumming plays were used to mark important stages in the agricultural year and were considered folk plays. They concerned themselves around themes of duality, battles of good and evil, and the resurgence or resurrection of life.
The Vinotok Theatre Troupe, composed of community members, will mum the restaurants and pubs of Elk Avenue, from the Ginger Café to Kochevars. They will perform a small “preview” of the bigger, and later, production, enticing guests of local establishments to join them in the streets for the feature presentation. As tradition dictates, both in medieval times and in Crested Butte, in exchange for their entertainment, mummers receive food and drink.
The cast and crew of Vinotok are important. They allow us to be transported to another world. Through their costuming and song and dance, a magic is created, we are drawn in to a place where reality and imagination cross paths. Become a part of the magic, even as a community member you can dress up and be in the streets…
The Trial of the Grump
The Trial of the Grump takes place on an outdoor stage in front of the Eldo on Elk Avenue. Here we see the true battle of the mumming plays of yore. Sir Hapless represents the encroachment of the industrial world and technology. He is “progress” and the ways of civilized man. Sir Hapless is both foolish and destructive and can also be very dangerous.
To oppose Sir Hapless, the Dragon comes forth, a genderless character representing nature, deep earth, good fortune and everything wild. The dragon is powerful, unpredictable and fierce while also being very beautiful.
The two begin their frightful dual, until the Harvest Mother stops it. The Harvest Mother is Gaia, she is the mother of all, of the earth and all the deities. She is the symbol of fertility, and in the harvest season, of the earth’s bounty. She pronounces, “We can not survive without balance in this world.” When the Harvest Mother talks, people listen.
Meanwhile, the Green Man is frolicking his way through the 12 maidens, representing the 12 months of the year. The Green Man is a promise – that spring and vegetation will return once again. He is the masculine energy to balance the Harvest Mother. The Green Man is virile, vivacious and lusty. But even the maidens can’t sustain the Green Man’s energy, and he is dying.
The Grump becomes the scapegoat. Reminiscent of the effigies of Eastern Europe burned on the boss man’s lawn as a rib, The Grump is everything we want to forget and let go of. He is stuffed with our own grumps, grievances and woes. The Grump, even though given a fair trial by the Magistrate who is representing justice and fairness, is sentenced to burn and with it the negative energy of the community.
And so, as a township we parade to the crossroads of the 4-way stop to rid ourselves of the old, to make way for the new. We dance with abandon around the fire, a plea to the sun to return, to not forget we are here, as we head into the long, dark months of winter.
Vinotok. It is a passageway to help us with the transition from summer to fall. It is a way to bond together as a community, to forget our grievances against ourselves and one another. We come together at Vinotok to celebrate this wild place we live in, so close to the rhythms of nature. We come together to celebrate ourselves as a community, the bounty of an incredible summer with its harvests of wildflowers and warmth as well as a harvest of food. We gather to be thankful of all that we have been given. We dance around the fire to abandon, to let go, to begin anew in the ever cycling circle of life and the seasons. Burn Grump, burn.
–Molly Murfee
