Dan Nicholas Park Nature Center will be hosting the fifth annual Simple Living Festival this Saturday, May 5, from 10a.m.- 6 p.m. The annual all-day spring event is a special opportunity for folks to step back in time and to see and experience first-hand some of the skills, crafts, music and lifestyle of previous generations when life was simpler and closer to nature and the earth.
The Simple Living Festival is an expansion of the annual Earth Day event, branching out to include heritage skills and crafts in addition to the conservation and environmentally themed exhibitors. There is no charge for admission.
• Heritage skills and crafts demonstrated will be blacksmithing, gunsmithing, woodworking, knife making, wood carving, musical instrument making, yarn spinning, soap making, stained glass, flint knapping, painting, campfire cooking, crocheting, story telling and Native American crafts and bead work.
• Live music with local musicians begins at noon and goes until 6 p.m., including Michael and Gaynell Lambert, Coleman Emerson (Habitat for Humanity), Richard Jones, Liam Pendergrass, Jim and Angela Gobble, Eden’s Gate (Jamey Basinger and Melissa Benfield Adams), and Blazin’ Blues Bob Paolino (acoustic blues guitar).
• Food will be provided by Providence UMC YIA (Youth In Action).
• At 11 a.m., there will be a special presentation in the Nature Center auditorium by Ken Clifton from RCCC on the benefits of using solar energy to power homes and vehicles (www.KenClifton.com)
• The movie/documentary Green Fire will be shown at 4 p.m. in the auditorium, a full-length documentary about legendary environmentalist Aldo Leopold, tracing how he shaped and influenced the modern environmentalist movement (www.greenfiremovie.com).
• There will be a demonstration of solar equipment by a local Green Energy company, an electronics recycling company on site in the picnic area and local car dealers will show off their “green” autos.
• The Carolina Raptor Center will be doing talks about raptors at 1, 2 and 3 p.m.
• The Nature Center will have a trail walk at 10:30 a.m., a bear feeding at 2:30 p.m., and a Meet The Animal at 3:30 p.m.
For more information on the Simple Living Festival, visit www.dannicholas.net, 704-216-7833 or 704-216-7819