A Summer Solstice Celebration

This year’s Summer Solstice Performance Art Festival, “Alchemy and Intention,” would have been a wonderful event on any occasion. The weather was perfect, the cost of entry (and parking) a mere five dollars, and the refreshments plentiful and inexpensive. A beautiful, lush park, full of native plants, trees, and large, site-specific sculptures, served as the setting for the thirteen commissioned performances. The artists and artist collectives performed in, around, and even on top of sculptures as the sun slowly set on the newly minted federal holiday, Juneteenth. Although billed as a summer solstice event, the festival, which concluded after midnight with a ritual bonfire, took place a half-day shy of the actual solstice.