What You’ll Find At Greenwoodstock This Sunday

Greenwood Playground will once again be alive with music and crafts this Sunday, May 5 from 9:am to 5pm, when the Friends of Greenwood Playground are hosting the fourth annual Greenwoodstock.

Read on to hear from the Friends about how Greenwoodstock has evolved, how to get involved, and to see pictures of last year’s festival.

KBK: What is new this year at Greenwoodstock?
FOGP: One thing that’s new is we have a new team! We are currently Dari, Lisa O, Lisa JZ, Beth, and Shana. All neighborhood moms. We are a small but mighty group!

Another is that this year we will have a lot of kids music. In the past we did not focus on kids since it’s not really a kids event, but this year we decided it would be nice to have more of a mix.

We also launched a new website that is very user friendly — even though we are still working out a few bugs.

Our Facebook page is very active. You can find us on Twitter. We have also created some hashtags for our Greenwoodstock event, #GWS and #Greenwoodstock on Instagram/Twitter.

What has evolved over the years with FOGP?
What has evolved are the programs. Each year we are trying to offer new and more things — like our Extravagreenza event. It was our first Earth Day theme and it was a really amazing day! We had Tom Chapin perform, neighborhood dad Mike Gold “The Ballooniac”, arts and crafts with Barking Cat Studio, and a worm composting demonstration. Those are just a few highlights.

There is a lot of food and music planned this year. So much so that you had to promote the event as a festival. Is that true?
Actually, we do not have any food at our events. So far, it has been difficult to get a permit to be able to sell food inside the playground. So we are totally working with handmade crafts and stoop sale treasures. The parks are really trying to cut down on illegal sales by non-permitted people, so we shifted our focus to the all-day music aspect, as opposed to the “flea market” aspect of the event. Confusing — a bit. Basically, we are doing all-day music and handmade crafts and stoop sale finds — but we are trying not to bring too much attention to the “flea market” aspect.

Who are some of your featured artists?
Our performance lineup is not 100% yet, but some highlights are The Cynthia King Dancers, The Dad Beats, and Debbie Deane.

Can people still volunteer to help at Greenwoodstock?
Actually, YES! We are in need of volunteers to help on the day of. If interested, please send an email to Shana Cooper Urbas. We welcome teens who need volunteer credits for school also. We are always looking for new folks to join our team or get involved on many different levels.

What plans do you have for Greenwood Playground this year?
Our plans for the near future are to apply for a 501c3 status so that we can be eligible for funds coming from many different places. Our summer program is going to be awesome as always and we hope it will be bigger and better than last year! Our long-term goal is to build a clubhouse in place of the shed, so that we can offer programs during the cold weather months, and maybe even have some great teen programs.

We hope to see you at Greenwoodstock this Sunday!

If you would like to learn more about how to get involved with the Friends of Greenwood Playground, please email greenwoodplayground@gmail.com.

All pictures courtesy of Friends of Greenwood Playground