Art Guild holds third annual festival

By NICOLE METTS
Cove Leader-Press

On Friday evening and all day Saturday, the Five Hills Art Guild along with a lineup of volunteers, sponsors, artists and performers brought the arts to Copperas Cove for the third year in a row. An estimated 2,500 people attended during the two days. 
Linda Lapierre serves as the guild’s treasurer and also festival coordinator. 
“This is our third annual art festival and I think our best yet. The weather looked threatening but was blessedly perfect. Just enough sunshine, with not too much heat. Good crowds with excellent food trucks and record making vendors and art of every genre. This was an amazing effort from the Five Hills Art Guild and I can’t wait till next year.”
This year’s theme was “Go Green for St. Patrick’s Day and for encouragement to recycle. 
The city’s Solid Waste Department provided bins for recycling cans and plastic bottles and there were several booths that matched the theme. 
The Green Plant was present with owner Michelle Pace who provides curbside composting service. Slice of Heaven Farms’ LeeAnn Boore sold goat milk soap and lotion, along with feed bags repurposed into reusable grocery bags. Nicole Oaks with Treemagination was selling wooden blocks, puzzles and more from fallen tree branches. Finally, Laura and Malachi Muncy taught kids how to make homemade paper from unwanted things like dryer lint and worn out clothing.
“I think we have been doing this for ten years,” said Laura Muncy. “Malachi got into paper from combat paper, where they make it out of old military uniforms for veterans. After that, he fell in love with it, bought this studio and we have been doing it ever since.”
DJ Rebehah Garris kicked off the event’s entertainment at 6 p.m. on Friday, while people shopped all the handmade creations in over 50 different booths. Artists and art enthusiasts also enjoyed half a dozen food trucks supplying festival favorites. 
A central Texas student step competition followed DJ Garris and then Shoemaker Highschool’s Pandemonium Steel Drums finished the entertainment for the night. 
Festival goers still danced to music in front of the stage till the night ended at 10 p.m.
Guild president Robert Weidinger II shared his thoughts on the event. 
“Great turn out, great exposure, we got new members (joining the art guild) and the vendors seem to be happy, so that’s good. They will come back next year.”
Saturday morning the Five Hills Scholarship Pageant royalty made one of their final appearances of their reigns when they opened the festival introducing themselves and discussing their platforms of service. Between them, they have more than 5,000 community service hours and 250 appearances. They will also be crowning their successors on Saturday, March 24.
Students from Copperas Cove High School’s JROTC volunteered in directing traffic and within the park including ninth graders Sebashtin Burchill and Mark Macorol.
Among the artists showing their work were local students.
Sheila Kerzee is a student at Copperas Cove High School and at age 15, had her own artist booth thanks to the creative support of her father Philip Kerzee.
Philip said, “I’ll do whatever I need to do, whether its drive her a thousand miles to an art festival so she can set up, or just get out there, get her name out there, get her on social media. I’m a dad, I am going to do whatever it takes for my little girl.”
Tommy Connell of Tommy Connell Brand Custom Hand Painted Shoe Designs and more is also a Copperas Cove high school junior and age 16. He personalizes shoes and has even made a pair of shoes from scratch, making his own mold for the bottom and completing the sewing.
Boy Scout Troop 257 was present both days selling snacks and eagerly volunteered to help everyone including vendors  and stayed for cleanup after the festival was over. Boy Scouts Branden Hensley (15), Alexander Pittman (13), and Jarred Ahart (10) were a few of the scouts involved and said that the money they raise will help pay for their camps and the volunteering will help them by giving service hours. 
Timothy Egans said, “At first I was going to (volunteer) because colleges look at that kind of stuff, but now that I’m here, I want to do more because it’s actually fun.” Egans is currently a junior at Copperas Cove high school.
Music act Rare Dog played at 11:15 followed by Gymkix’s High Velocity dance company dancers. 
Eva Linse performed with the High Velocity and talked about performing for the corwd. 
“I was a bit nervous, but it was exciting and fun, though.” Linse is 9 years old and a Gymkix dancer.
Storm’s I followed the dancers with their sounds of blues as the weather continued to be cloudy, but free of possible rain. 
Faith Van Loosen said, “I think this is absolutely amazing. I think more people should shop locally. I absolutely love, love events like this. They take all my money.” Loosen is a resident of Belton and came to the fesetival on Saturday.
The Central Texas Belly Dancers charmed the crowd with their vibrant costumes and lively dance moves and invited the crowd to dance with them for their finale, as did the Double C’s Square Dance Club that followed them.
Entertainment ended with vocalist and musician Katy Starr of Austin on Saturday. 
The event ended prior to an early evening thunderstorm on Saturday.