ARTISTS DISTRIBUTE GOODS AT FAIR
Phillip Carter and Rodger Brown have exhibited their flutes at the fair for the past two years.
CAPTION: Fairgoers examine dalmations during the 1996 Midsummer Night's Fair. Dogs will compete in Saturday's dalmation mascot contest.
During a Boy Scout camp-out in 1989, two troop leaders--a supervisor at York International and a research meteorologist--heard flute music being played.
They wanted an Indian flute and couldn't find one, so they decided to make one.
A month after the camp-out, they found some flute designs and used them in making their flutes.
Phillip Carter, the supervisor, and Rodger Brown, meteorologist at the National Severe Storms laboratory, are going to display their flutes at the Midsummer Night's Fair, today and Saturday.
They will sell their hand-carved flutes and play them for the public.
The flute exhibit is just one of many exhibits that will be displayed at the Midsummer Night's Fair, sponsored by the Firehouse Art Center.
The fair will be held from 6 p.m. until midnight at Lions Park, in the 400 block of S. Flood, between Boyd and Main streets. There is no admission.
Carter and Brown work together to create their exhibit, researching flute designs and exhibiting their creations together.
Making the flutes takes quite a bit of time, Brown said. He makes two or three flutes a month in his spare time, and Carter makes eight to 10.
It takes 18 to 19 hours, over a three-week period, to make the larger flutes, Carter said.
Carter and Brown have exhibited their flutes at the Midsummer Night's Fair for the past five or six years.
Brown said people are intrigued by how the flutes are made.
"We spend a lot of time at shows, explaining to people how the flutes are made and how they operate as musical instruments," Brown said.
Other artists will exhibit paintings, jewelry, wooden toys, baskets, tie-dye shirts, and hand-crafted herbal soap.
A balloon jester will wander the grounds, and wood turners and wool spinners will demonstrate their crafts.
Caricature artists will draw people's portraits.
"It's another opportunity for artists to display their work," said Linda Sexton, assistant director of the Firehouse Art Center.
"I want to encourage people to come because it is free, it is fun, it is relaxed and casual," Sexton said.
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EVENT CALENDAR
Midsummer Night's Fair at Lions Park
TODAY
6:30 to 7:15 p.m.: Sunshine Generation (children's performing group)
7:45 to 8:30: East Side Jazz Quartet (jazz and show tunes)
8:45 to 9:30: Traveling Jones (folk and Celtic music)
10 to midnight: Gloss (pop, punk, folk, pseudo-alternative "all rolled into one")
SATURDAY
6:30 TO 7:30: Annual Dalmation Mascot Contest.
7:30 to 8:15: Flying Heart Theatre puppet performance.
8:30 to 9: Billi McKye Belly Dance Troupe
9 to 9:30: Los Ninos de Espana--Flamenco Dancers
10 to midnight: Officer 67 (Mark McClellan and Peter Erickson and band)
For more information about events at the Firehouse Art Center's Midsummer Night's Fair today and Saturday at Lions Park, call 329-4523.