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The 2012 Sweet Pea Parade consisted of over 60 entries and delighted the huge crowd along Main St. for over an hour.  Thank you to everyone who participated!

This year’s prize winners are as follows:

Best Use of Sweet Peas:
Winner – Garden Paradise, MSU Master Gardener Program
Honorable Mention – Mermaids in the Sea, Willa Devlin

Best use of Theme:
Winner – The Ultimate Paradise, St. Catherine Family Health Care Clinic
Honorable Mention – Montana Ballet

Best Costumes:
Winner – Opera Lover’s Paradise, Intermountain Opera Bozeman
Honorable Mention – Bozeman Public Library

Most Entertaining:
Winner –  Kids Playing in the Sun, Lone Mountain Gymnastics
Honorable Mention – Tuttie Fruitti Music Island, Kate Bryan

Best Children’s Float:
Winner – Main Street Dance Theatre
Honorable Mention – Mermaids in the Sea, Willa Devlin

Congratulations!

There was a great turn out for this year’s Art Show – thank you to everyone who submitted work!  You can visit the show in the Atrium Gallery of the Bozeman Public Library during normal business hours now through August 24th.

Congratulations to our winners!

Representational / Realistic Category:
First Place – Tara Aguilar
Second Place – Jennifer Coleman
Third Place – Pat Gibson
Fourth – Linda Williams
Honorable Mention – Annika Wilson

3-D (Sculptural / Relief) & Abstract / Non-Objective Category:
First Place – Nancy Lande
Second Place – Kenda Minter
Third Place – Cian Bullock
Fourth Place – Mary Penberthy
Honorable Mention – Katie Powers-Cash

Best of Show:
Grand Prize – MACK (Peggy Kohler)

1. It’s Sweet Pea’s 35^th anniversary, and we are shaking stuff up this year.

2. Tater pigs only come along once a year – at Sweet Pea. It’s a seasonal delicacy.

3. The ting, ting, ting of little hammers in the children’s activities area is one of the best sounds in the whole world.

4. Sweet Pea is a perfect way to enjoy the bright Bozeman sunshine, appreciating the arts in Lindley Park.

5. You’re sure to run into at least a few friends who you haven’t seen since last year.

6. As usual, 47% of the arts & crafts vendors are from Montana. Support local artists!

7. Speaking of local artists, all your favorite performers will be there including Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Cure for the Common, and Spontaneous Combustibles.

8. You can experience national acts including Milonga, Glen Phillips, Hot Club of Cowtown, Jeanne Jolly, and BalletX.

9. Where else can you get a whole weekend of entertainment for $15? (Or a single day for $10.)

10. You are Sweet Pea’s sponsor! Sweet Pea doesn’t happen without you!

11. If any funds are raised beyond what is needed to operate the Festival, it is donated to the community in the form of grants for arts and arts education.

12. It’s a community tradition!

Sweet Pea happens rain or shine and being in Montana you know we can have both (and everything in between) in a matter of minutes, so come prepared!

Here are some tips to help you pack for the weather and your overall enjoyment of the Festival:

• Sunscreen is a must!
• Stay hydrated!   Our non-profit food vendors offer a wide variety of beverage selections, in addition to great snack options, all while supporting some great local causes.
• Umbrella, hat, rain slicker, or rain poncho, because as all Festival veterans know Sweet Pea weekend rarely passes without a little rain, particularly during the Saturday night Main Stage performance.  Don’t leave!  The rain showers are usually short and the music continues.  If you forget your rain gear we will have some rain ponchos available for purchase at our Merchandising tent, or if your child makes a newspaper hat as part of Sunday’s Degas and Gaudi Costume Corner you could commandeer that!
• Layers, because rain showers are usually followed by cooler temps.
• A blanket to claim your space in the Bowl for the weekend.
• Low backed lawn chairs.  If you only have high backed chairs, please claim your space near the back of the crowds as a courtesy to others.
• No pets are allowed in the park during Festival weekend so please leave Fido at home.
• Alcohol is also not permitted.
• For those of you with small children, we will once again have a nursing and baby changing station for your convenience.  It will be located behind the Arts and Crafts Vendors near the port-a-potties on the northeast side of the park.

August in Montana is beautiful – we can’t think of a better place to spend its first weekend than at Lindley Park celebrating the arts!  We hope you will be joining us.

North Carolina native, Jeanne Jolly, will be performing on the Sweet Pea Festival Main Stage at 2:00 p.m., Sunday, August 5^th.  Read the Q&A session Jeanne had with our Music Chair, Adele, to get to know where she’s been, what inspires her, and where she’s headed in her music career.

Q: You are a classically trained vocalist who has toured with the likes of Chris Botti and the Foreign Exchange, while making waves with your own brand of alternative country.  Tells us how you’ve evolved as a singer-songwriter.
A: I used to just say “Yes” to every gig that came my way as a singer.  I needed to do that…it helped me to evolve as a singer, performer, and a person.  In doing that, I’ve had some amazing opportunities to perform in places I’ve dreamed about.  Ultimately that is the carrot that is constantly dangling in front of my face.  I love to sing.  I have always dabbled in recording melodies in my head or writing a lyric on an old receipt in my car… at a stoplight of course.  When I moved back to North Carolina to be with my mother who had ovarian cancer and passed away almost 6 weeks after I arrived I was shell shocked.  The scrim was suddenly lifted (that’s the gift you get from tragedy …or at least that’s what I think) and it was clear to me that I needed to address this desire write. To write …by myself.  I started taking guitar lessons and it just became a natural progression for me. Writing songs quickly became my release and my joy.  My dad quickly became my audience to debut new material. He was a great audience because he always liked every song. It was a healing exchange and I will never forget that time.  It was that experience and frame of mind that catapulted me into this humbling world of songwriting.  Every time I start a new one, I feel like a fledgling but I really enjoy the challenge of it and there is nothing that compares to performing your own music.

Q: Falling in Carolina, your recent EP has garnered top praise for honest lyrics and quality vocals. What inspired this album?
A: Falling In Carolina is the first collection of original songs I’ve released and all of the songs were written after my move back to NC.  The song, Falling In Carolina, is about my mom.  After watching her go through what she did and then experiencing all of the beauty, love, and grace that surrounded our family during that time, I had to write a song about it. I wrote this song in my first fall season of being back in Raleigh. The NC foliage was beautiful that year.  The oak trees in our front yard only keep their golden color for a couple of weeks and I sat on my front porch enjoying them almost every day.   I was inspired purely by my own life events for this EP and moving back to NC quieted my mind a bit so I could hear the songs that needed to come out.  Here With You was inspired by my younger brother and his wife. It’s a simple country love song about them.  All Is Not Lost – I wrote this one about memories.  I was having one of those days where I was just overwhelmed with loss and my dad gave me a hug and said, “There, there Jeanne, all that’s lost is really all in your mind.” He then got in his car and went to the grocery store leaving me there to soak in his words.  Truthfully, I made myself a drink, spread out a blanket in the back yard and wrote All Is Not Lost as a response to what he told me.  It means, you always have your memories…nothing can take them away.  It’s my only 60 minute song.  I wish they all came that easy.  So I guess just living life, grieving, falling in and out of love, & of course being home in North Carolina inspired this album.

Q: This is your first visit to Montana. What about the trip are you most looking forward to?
A: Montana has been at the very tippy top of places I want to visit in the U.S.  I have gazed at pictures of Big Sky country for years and now I’m finally getting to come to this beautiful state.  To be honest, I’m a little overwhelmed with all of the places I want to see.  I know I could spend weeks in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone and that is just the tip of the iceberg.  I am looking forward to seeing as much of Montana as I can while we are here.  I know we will be busy playing but we’ll make time to soak in the beauty every chance we can.  Bozeman looks like a beautiful city…beyond excited for Sweet Pea!

Q: Sweet Pea is a festival to promote and cultivate the arts. How have the arts inspired you and your career in music?
A: Many forms of art inspired me in my music especially in my curiosity of what I can create.  I find myself doubly inspired by anyone I see create something from nothing with their hands, brain, and heart…whether it be a musical composition, stage set design, a beautiful dance, a clay pot, a painting, a carving, and so on.  There have been times that picking up a paint brush, or just sketching something has freed up my mind so I have room to do other things like finish song I’ve been stumped on or something I’ve been putting off.   Growing up in Raleigh, I had a lot of opportunity to participate in art in the community and was encouraged to get a taste of different fields of art in general.  I have a lot of visual artists in my family and they inspire me as well. I guess it’s passion for the art that inspires me.

Q: Tell us about your newest studio work.
A: I’m so excited about this record we’ve been cooking up!!  It will be a full length album this time and will be released in the fall. I think it’s a big step forward from Falling In Carolina in that I have had some time to process a lot of what I was going through when I wrote Falling In Carolina.   I had to learn how to write from a different place for this album.  It carries flavors from the EP but I feel like we expanded on those sounds for this one. As far as the production goes, I’m very happy to be working with producer, engineer, guitarist, Chris Boerner from Raleigh.  He and I worked together on Falling In Carolina as well.  I trust his ears and am blessed to have him by my side through this music making journey.  Most of this record also features the band that I play with live and so there is a wonderful family feel to that. There is more harmony, slightly thicker instrumentation, and I allowed myself to show a broader range of my musical influences.

Q: Who inspires you the most? 
A: My mom.

Q: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
A: In the world of music, I see myself working with people that challenge me to raise the bar, owning a pre-war martin, a vegetable garden, and having Alison Krauss on speed dial.  In life, all I know is I have so much to look forward to so I’ll just try not to get ahead of myself.  There’s a song I sing at the live shows with The Foreign Exchange called Laughing At Your Plans. The lyric, “Maybe now you’ll understand that God is laughing at your plans.  What will be will be.”… a little reminder for me to stay out of the way.

Q: Tell us about your guitarist, Chris Boerner, and your work together.
A: Chris Boerner is such a gifted person .  He plays in my band; he recorded, mixed, and mastered, as well as co-produced Falling In Carolina, and is producing my upcoming release as well.  He has such good ears and I trust him in every sense of the word.  We were actually in the same kindergarten class.  I don’t think we hung out much back then.  We’ve been friends since high school though and throughout the years our musical paths have continued to cross.  When I had enough songs for an EP, Chris called me one day and said, “Jeanne it’s time for you to make your record.”  I get these calls a lot from Chris.  He’s always ready to press the “go” button before I am, but this creates a wonderful balance. We work well together and both of us are very opinionated and honest with each other about what we are hearing.  The biggest thing I’ve learned from working with Chris in the studio is to keep an open mind and try things out before saying no.  Stepping out of my comfort zone encourages growth but he also can read my mind somehow.  He is also quite the engineer and I learn a lot watching him get various sounds in the studio.

Chris stays very busy, always has.  He keeps projects flowing and gets things done.  He currently leads an incredible jazz trio called The Hot at Nights featuring himself on 8 string guitar, along with Matt Douglas on saxophone, and Nick Baglio (who also plays in my band) on drums.  They just finished a tour through the Midwest with Nicolay of The Foreign Exchange and they have a record out called Real Talk and an EP with Nicolay called Shibuya Session EP.  It’s because of Chris, that I came to know The Foreign Exchange.  He plays guitar with them, has done mixing for their records, and I am a supporting vocalist with them, alongside Sy Smith.

Obviously I can’t say enough good things about Chris Boerner.  Huge heart. Fearless drive. Solid ears.