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In 1978, Sweet Pea Festival began when a group of 17 community members got together and decided to put together an arts festival. Thirty-five years later, Sweet Pea continues to exist solely because of the involvement of the community. Thousands of people enjoy the Festival every year, but have you ever wondered how it all comes together?

To begin, Sweet Pea has two employees who work year-round: one full-time Executive Director and one part-time assistant. They are often called the “glue” that holds everything together – volunteers, deadlines, applications, etc. Someone has to make sure it all gets done! They run the office (located on East Main), respond to public inquiries, put together Board meetings, handle the books, and more.

Some people wonder what the staff does all year. After Festival, there is wrap-up of everything: collecting feedback from the community, balancing the finances, and inventorying remaining merchandise. Around October and November, they begin recruiting for open Board positions, budgeting for next year, organizing the office, and enjoying a short period of quiet before things get busy again. In the spring, planning kicks into high gear, and by June, the office is in full swing!

The Board of Directors starts with the Executive Board (the Board President, Vice-President, and Secretary/Treasurer) and nine Division Coordinators (DCs). Each DC is in charge of an area of the Festival: Admissions, Children’s Activities, Festival Exhibitions, Grants & Special Projects, Marketing/PR, Merchandising, Performing Arts, Physical Arrangements, and Pre-Festival Exhibitions. Most of those titles are fairly self-explanatory. Festival Exhibitions are things at the Festival like Arts & Crafts and the Flower Show; Pre-Festival Exhibitions are events before the Festival like the Ball and the Bite of Bozeman.

DCs main job is to help coordinate the Committees in their Division. Each Division has three to five Committees in it. For example, the Performing Arts Division has five Committees: Dance, Family Entertainment, Hospitality, Music, and Theatre.

Each Committee has a Committee Chair to oversee it. Some Committees are really Committees of one or two (just the Chair); some Committees are bigger. Every Committee Chair and DC has a one to two page job description outlining what needs to be accomplished in their area of responsibility and timeframe.

For example, the Poster Committee puts together the poster contest application, collects the entrants, hosts a meeting to chose the finalists, presents these finalists to the Board, notifies the winner, sends the artwork to the printer for reproduction, handles press about the poster and winner, and sets up a place to show all the entries. Whew!

Altogether, there are nine Divisions, and 32 Committees. All Division Coordinators and Committee Chairs are part of the Board of Directors, so plus the Executive Board, that equals 44 people! Thankfully, those job descriptions define everyone’s tasks so no one is stepping on each other’s toes.

While some people think having a Board of 44 people sounds like a nightmare, it’s actually vital to keep the Festival working. If we got rid of any Committees, that part of Festival wouldn’t happen!

The Board of Directors meets once a month and twice in July to conduct business and vote on things such as performers and the t-shirt design. Divisions usually meet once a month in the spring and summer as well to coordinate. To help Board meetings run smoothly, only DCs and Executive Board members vote. Much like a representative democracy, Division Coordinators take a consensus of their Committee Chairs to cast one vote for the Division.

And that’s the Board of Directors! But it’s just the beginning because even with all those Division Coordinators, Committee Chairs, and Committees, it’s still not enough to put on the Festival.

Hundreds and hundreds of volunteers contribute thousands of hours to help pull the Festival off. Each Committee has different areas where they need volunteers. Admissions needs volunteers to sell wristbands for a couple of hours at the gates; Children’s Activities needs volunteers to help kids with the fun; Merchandising needs volunteers to sell t-shirts; Physical Arrangements needs volunteers to set up and take down stages and tents. You get the idea.

Once Festival begins, it’s quite magical. All of the pieces come together as each Committee, each DC, each volunteer plays their part. Each Festival is unique as each Festival is put together by a different group of people, all working together to create this beloved community tradition.

So thank you to everyone who helps put together Sweet Pea! The Festival would not be possible without you. It truly is your Festival.

And now you know how it all comes together!

As a trained, professional graphic artist and illustrator, Eric has had his own boutique ad agency for many years. He has designed tons of t-shirts over the years, starting in high school when his friends would give him money to design shirts screen-printed and tye-died shirts for them. So, creating and submitting a design for the Sweet Pea t-shirt contest just came naturally.

In his design, Eric sought to capture the fun, excitement, and personality of the Festival. Through a dynamic yet simple three-color design that emphasized a custom, hand-drawn font created just for the shirt design, as well as clean design and color concepts. Eric says he was inspired to go for a retro look because this year is the 35th anniversary of the Sweet Pea Festival in Bozeman, and it was his goal to celebrate this landmark year in the design.

Despite all his artistic talent and making a living as an artist, Eric explains that being an artist doesn’t define who he is. First and foremost he is focused on being a good dad, serving his church and his community, and inspiring others—including his own kids—to find their purpose and serve their community through their natural talents and gifts.

Our Music Chair recently had the opportunity to ask Glen Phillips some questions about his career and his upcoming show at the Sweet Pea Festival. We thought you’d like to “hear” his responses.

Sweet Pea: You’re known for your honest and insightful lyrics – one Sweet Pea fan described your music as listening to a musical diary – would you say that this statement is true?

Glen: I hope so. My favorite songs by other writers are the ones that make me weep, and I hope to perform the same service for others. I try to write from a pretty universal emotional point of view, but to talk about the bits we’re not supposed to talk about – the emotional elephants in the room. I’m not sure that it’s a diary, but I do try to go to the places that scare me a little.

SP: You’ve recently collaborated on the Works Progress Adminstration – how did that project come to be and how is it different creatively from your other work?

Glen: I met Nickel Creek back in 2000, and we toured a bunch and made an album under the name MAS. Sean Watkins and I had been wanting to do more collaboration, and put together a group of 8 from friends we’d made through Largo (a club in LA) and our other travels. It was a life changing experience to work with such high levels of talent and joy.

SP: What are you most looking forward to during your trip to Montana and the Sweet Pea Festival of the Arts?

Glen: I haven’t been to Montana for a while. I’m mostly looking forward to a nice long run with some beautiful scenery.

SP: The music industry has changed dramatically in the past ten years.  Having been a witness to the industry’s shifts, what would be your advice to aspiring musicians in today’s market?

Glen: Do it yourself, and love what you do. There’s no point in trying to make music for someone else (to please a record company or manager or whatever) any more. The current successes are almost entirely people doing what they believe in on their own, and gaining a critical mass because of the authenticity of their creation. It’s not about getting signed or discovered any more. It’s also even more crazily random than it used to be, so don’t leave your other skills behind.

SP: Sweet Pea’s mission statement is to promote and cultivate the arts – what do the arts mean do you?

Glen: The arts come right behind food, shelter and community as the basic needs of a human being. They are the languages that say the truths that words alone cannot.

Join us Saturday, August 4th, at 1:30 pm as Glen Phillips performs on our Mainstage!

Congratulations Amanda Morton from Dillon, MT! Amanda is the winner of the 2012 Sweet Pea Poster Art Contest.

This year’s contest garnered 69 outstanding entries! A group of five community members were invited to jury the entries and narrow the selection down to five. The jurors used the following guidelines to aid in their decision: a) how well did the entry represent Sweet Pea; b) that the entry was not too similar to a prior year’s poster; c) how well the artwork would reproduce; and d) personal preference.

The chosen five were presented to the Sweet Pea Board of Directors on May 9th, where they declared Amanda Morton this year’s winner after several rounds of elimination voting.

All 69 entries will be on display at the ERA Landmark/Downtown Visitor Center during the month of July and we invite you to visit the display.  Posters and other Sweet Pea Merchandise will be on sale July 5th at various outlets around town.

Grand Prize:  Amanda Morton
Second Place:  Nikki Romero
Third Place:  Ivy Davis & Karen Luckey (co-artists)
Honorable Mention:  Shay Armstrong and JP Pomnichowski

We are so excited to unveil our new website! We are celebrating 35 years of Sweet Pea this year and, along with some great changes you’ll see at the Festival, we felt it was time for a fresh look for our online presence as well. We hope you like what you see. We think it’s vibrant, colorful, and fun – all things an art festival should be, right?

In addition to all the information you’re used to being able to access from our website, we hope you find some new features useful as well: a) a list of Arts & Crafts Vendors and their medium; b) a list of vendors participating in Sweet Pea’s Bite of Bozeman; c) galleries of previous year’s poster art and pictures from Festival’s past; d) better descriptions of our volunteer opportunities; e) a convenient way to make a tax-deductible donation to aid us in promoting the arts; f) press kit info. In early July look for our new online shopping cart! Gone are the days of mailing us your check and handwriting your order.

We would love your feedback on our new look and, of course, we hope to see you in Lindley Park to help us celebrate the arts and Sweet Pea’s 35th year!