The weather was a bit blustery but beautiful for the Millstream Arts Festival in downtown St. Joseph Sept. 27 as thousands of people casually strolled closed-off Minnesota Street, admiring arts and crafts, socializing and enjoying a variety of foods.
More than 50 white tents, some of them shimmying in the wind, lined both sides of the street for several blocks as artists showed and, in some cases, demonstrated their arts and crafts. There were paintings in oil, acrylic, watercolor; drawings; metal works; ceramics; photography, jewelry; printmaking; textiles; woodworks; candles; glass; folk arts; and more.
There were also art activities for children; a booth of local writers with their books; musical performances, including the CSB/SJU Jazz Ensemble, The Half Steps, Charter Kats, Dennis Warner and the Stearns County Pachanga Society. Street performances included Chris Gustafson (street art), the Granite City Cloggers, Carnivale Revolver and musician Paul Imholte.
Many people also took in the vintage car-and-tractor show or stopped into the St. Joseph Historical Society, which was featuring Civil War memorabilia and vintage toys.
The festival, which took place from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., was one of the best-attended in its history.
A video which the festival put together is available by navigating to our website, www.thenewsleaders.com, and clicking on the Millstream Arts Festival logo, on the right-hand side under Informational Links.
Dalman was born and raised in South St. Cloud, graduated from St. Cloud Tech High School, then graduated from St. Cloud State University with a degree in English (emphasis on American and British literature) and mass communications (emphasis on print journalism). He studied in London, England for a year (1980-81) where he concentrated on British literature, political science, the history of Great Britain and wrote a book-length study of the British writer V.S. Naipaul. Dalman has been a reporter and weekly columnist for more than 30 years and worked for 16 of those years for the Alexandria Echo Press.