Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church will be a center of Greek food, music, culture and fun Friday through Sunday.
Cobb County’s largest cultural festival returns to Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church this weekend with the 22nd annual Marietta Greek Festival. The festival features the flavors of Greece in the food, the drink, the music, the dancing, the shopping, and the Byzantine architecture and iconography of the church itself at 3431 Trickum Rd. in Northeast Cobb. The festival runs Friday from 3 to 11 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., rain or shine. Admission is $3, but children under age 12 are free. Admission also is free to anyone during the first three hours of the festival, from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday. A $5 weekend pass is available if you want to come and go. There’s a lot to bring you back: Free …
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Thousands flocked to downtown Kennesaw for the 36th annual event.
Sunny skies and the promise of food, live entertainment, Civil War reenactments and more than 250 booths featuring homemade crafts lured thousands of people to downtown Kennesaw over the weekend for the 2012 Big Shanty Festival. Watch the attached videos and click through the photo gallery for highlights from the 36th annual event, which drew 55,000 visitors last year and event organizers estimated would attract 70,000 people this year. Check the following articles for more Patch coverage of the weekend festivities: For more Kennesaw news, subscribe to our free email newsletter, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
The evening event will include a live auction and dinner.
Smith-Gilbert Gardens will host its second annual Rose Garden Gala this Saturday, April 28, from 6 to 10 p.m. Guests will enjoy live music as they dine under a tent next to the rose garden. Dinner choices include New York strip steak with red wine reduction, wild mushroom stuffed chicken and more. The fundraiser will help support Garden programs such as the new Gather ‘n’ Grow vegetable garden for children, care and upkeep of the historic Hiram Butler house and other facility improvements. The evening will also include a silent auction on a variety of items, some of which include: This year's event will also help toward a Fund-A-Need goal of $5,000 to off-set the cost of field trips for local school children. Tickets to the Rose Garden …
Monday, April 23, 2012
Jerry "Boss Hog" Johnson of Hiram sold his creations this weekend at the Big Shanty Festival.
Jerry "Boss Hog" Johnson has been "doing piggy banks" for 35 years. The Hiram native displayed an assortment of colorful pigs at Kennesaw's annual Big Shanty Festival over the weekend. Pig City USA merchandise consisted of pig princesses, pig pirates and pig policemen labeled as, well, "pigs." Other popular items at his booth on the corner of Main Street and J.O. Stephenson Ave. included signs with such wise adages as "Fat people are harder to kidnap." Watch the above video, and click through the photo gallery to learn more about Johnson's pigs. For more information, visit the Piggy City USA website.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Sherry and Jim Todd fashion bird feeders out of recycled bottles.
You've never seen a Corona bottle look so beautiful. Click through the above gallery for photos of hummingbird feeders crafted out of old bottles by Tennessee couple Sherry and Jim Todd. Sherry Todd says most of the bottles are recycled and that it's a meticulous process cutting and piecing together the many details of the feeders. The Todd's don't have a website or a store but instead, make their rounds in the craft circuit. You can visit their booth at the Big Shanty Festival. It is located on J.O. Stephenson Ave. across from the inflatable slide play area. Check back in with Kennesaw Patch as we'll have more videos and photos of the parade and festival, vendor spotlights and more. For more Kennesaw news, subscribe to our free email …
Saturday, April 21, 2012
The Big Shanty Festival vendor sells wooden puzzles, cutouts and more.
Hans Meier of Roswell has been a staple at the Big Shanty Festival for the past five years. The vendor crafts wooden puzzles, cutouts and three-dimensional "two-in-one" art. One piece, for example, is shaped like a cactus. Turn it 90 degrees, and it transforms into a tulip. Watch in the above video as Meier uses his scroll saw to create a special puzzle for 11-year-old McKenna Speaks, a 5th grader at Bullard Elementary School. For more information on Meier's work, visit his website. You can stop by his vendor booth, located on J.O. Stephenson Ave. across from the Kennesaw Police Department, anytime during the festival. Check back in with Kennesaw Patch as we'll have more videos and photos of the parade and festival, vendor spotlights and …
Great Gig Dance Company leads a dance routine Saturday morning following the opening Big Shanty Festival parade.
The 2012 Big Shanty Festival commenced Saturday morning with an opening parade in downtown Kennesaw, but it was a flash mob dance performance immediately afterward that really kicked the weekend festivities into motion. Watch in the above video as Great Gig Dance Company and a team of community members surprise festival attendees with a seemingly impromptu performance to "Party Rock Anthem." Check back in with Kennesaw Patch as we'll have more videos and photos of the parade and festival, vendor spotlights and more. For more Kennesaw news, subscribe to our free email newsletter, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Will you have a booth at this weekend's festival? Tell us in the comments.
An expected 60,000 to 70,000 visitors will fill the streets of downtown Kennesaw this weekend for the city's 36th annual Big Shanty Festival. Festivities will include an opening parade, a flash mob performance, food vendors, more than 250 booths featuring homemade crafts, and live entertainment on two stages. The Big Shanty Festival is a collaborative effort between the city, the Kennesaw Business Association, JRM Management and an extensive team of individuals, businesses and organizations. This year's festival is presented by Superior Plumbing. As one of north Georgia's largest events, the Big Shanty Festival has grown since its humble beginnings in 1975. According to Robert Jones of the Kennesaw Historical Society, the event was …
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
June 2 is the deadline to submit an entry in the Smith-Gilbert Gardens competition.
Be inspired by spring, and enter Smith-Gilbert Gardens' Riot of Color juried art show for the chance to display your artwork at the gardens and win $700. Entrants are asked to interpret the plant and animal life, sculptures and historic home nestled in Kennesaw's botanical backyard. The stated goals of the competition are to celebrate landscape art by bringing together serious artists, while also raising environmental awareness. You can download an entry form here. According to the Smith-Gilbert Gardens website, the competition is open to all living artists. Subject matter is limited to Smith-Gilbert Gardens. Both representational and non-representational submissions are accepted, and original artwork may be in any painting medium. …
Friday, April 13, 2012
Tassy Kirbas will perform among 36 acts from 41 different schools.
Lost Mountain Middle School student Tassy Kirbas is a finalist in Show Stoppers, an Atlanta-area talent competition part of ArtSSprings, an annual celebration of the arts in Sandy Springs. The sixth grader will compete among 36 acts from 41 different schools on April 21 before some of the best known names in Atlanta entertainment. Judges include Jan Smith, vocal coach for Justin Bieber, Usher, The Band Perry and more; Lisa Rosmond, vocal coach to young Broadway and Disney artists; Jody Feldman, Associate Producer and casting director for the Alliance Theatre; Jaspar Cameron, songwriter and producer for artists such as Christina Aguilera and Ciara; and Joseph Sikora, senior executive at Plumbline Music Group. The Show Stoppers finals will …
Ron Emberg
7:09 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Piggy City is one of our favorite booths to visit at the Big Shanty Festival each year. "Boss Hog" comes up with some great designs and we have purchased many pigs from him to celebrate birthdays and operations. One of our first purchases was for a friend who had just had open heart surgery and had a valve replaced with a pig valve. Jerry was able to inscribe on the pig "Happy to help" with a … more ›