Downtown Conway Shines with Rivertown Music and Arts Festival
By Christina Lee Knauss
Meck Hartfield stood under a white tent in Conway on May 2 and pounded a piece of iron into a delicate, tapering flower.
Hartfield owns Potts Ferry Forge, an old-fashioned blacksmith and iron works in Johnsonville, where he produces one-of-a-kind items such as tomahawks, knives, fireplace tools, walking sticks, lamps and doorknockers. Much of the metal comes from scrap people donate to him, or that he finds on his own.
A crowd of people gathered around as Hartfield scooped pieces of glowing-hot metal from burning coals, and sparks flew as he shaped the metal on an anvil.
Hartfield's unique work - and the chance to see him produce it on site - was symbolic of the wide range of artistic skills on display in downtown Conway that day at the 23rd annual Main Street Rivertown Music and Arts Festival.
The festival drew thousands of people to downtown Conway for a 12-hour day of live music, homegrown arts and crafts, food and a chance to enjoy great weather and the ambiance of downtown Conway.
The Rivertown festival has been going on since 1987, and gives visitors a chance to discover the charm of the city's downtown area, as well as experience the full scope of talent available not only in Conway but throughout Horry County.
Hartfield said he enjoyed showing people the traditional art of ironwork, and having the forge with him at the festival offered more than just the usual display of items of sale.
"I just work with the metal and see what it's going to become," he said.
Hartfield was not the only artist showing off his craft. Live glass-blowing exhibitions went on all through the day at Pop's Glassblowing Studio and Art Glass Gallery on Norman Alley. Owner Ed Streeter showed interested visitors how he made what he called a "recycled glass" piece, using shards from pieces that had broken to create new, one-of-a-kind items.
Other artists sold traditional Lowcountry sweet grass baskets, homemade jewelry, paintings and sculpture. Terri Cox of Clean Heart Designs displayed her jewelry as well as homemade "mosseries," small desktop terrariums that contained tiny moss gardens.
Two live music stages featured a wide variety of musicians and dancers. The Third Avenue stage included professional musicians from around the region, while the "Kids for the Community" stage set up on Third Avenue gave area young people the chance to show off what they could do. The kids' talent included cloggers and other dancers, musicians and young singers who performed a variety of styles, ranging from gospel to R&B and modern pop tunes. Paisley Ellis, 13, a student at Ocean Bay Middle School in Myrtle Beach, sang vintage rhythm and blues songs while her mother and other friends snapped pictures and waved from the front of the stage.
For the first time, the festival included a ticketed event. For $15, visitors could see a show by Charlotte-based jazz singer Beth Chorneau, who performed with the local Arlin Strader trio in the Main Street Theatre. Chorneau has recorded six solo CDs and is a favorite around the Carolinas. The program combined jazz standards with more improvisational and modern pieces.
Festival staff members said the ticketed concert was a new thing for the festival, and they wanted to provide a style of jazz that could please a variety of people. The indoor venue also gave people a chance to get out of the heat and to enjoy the lovely interior of the renovated theatre, which regularly hosts shows by the Theatre of the Republic.
An antique car show set up in the parking lot of Palmetto Chevrolet gave people the chance to relive old memories and see vintage cars on display, ranging from 1930s-era Chevrolets and a 1948 Chevrolet "woodie" wagon to Cadillacs from the '60s and '70s. The show was put on by the Chicora Antique Car Club.
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