MAKANDA FEST '96: MUSIC & CRAFTS AND MAKANDA

MAKANDA, Ill. -- Most of the stores on the Makanda boardwalk are closed Tuesdays and one has posted a sign that reads "Open noon-4 when possible."

The out-of-the-way hamlet's population of 400 is composed mostly of dedicated artists and craftspeople who came here from somewhere else, university professors who don't want to live in Carbondale, natives who knew better than to leave the bucolic hillsides, and one U.S. senator -- Paul Simon.

But one weekend a year, music rises from the main street, tents are erected for crafts demonstrations, and a few thousand people descend for the Makanda Fest.

For the first time, this year's version will offer nationally-known coffee house entertainment Friday night. Leading off at 7:30 p.m. will be St. Louis' Georgy Rock, a vocalist with a five-octave range, followed by the Carbondale band Organic Rain, and guitarist-vocalist Mike Williams from Austin, Texas.

Saturday's musical lineup is Blue Heron (blues, folk), Free Radicals (jazz, blues and folk), Dorians (Irish, Celtic) Jan Douglas (ragtime piano), Natalie Withers (jazzy blues) and Rapture (contemporary Christian).

Douglas, an SIU piano performance graduate who is administrator of the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site in St. Louis.

Also performing Saturday in the craft area will be the Peacocks, who play Scot-Irish music.

On Sunday the lineup includes Natives (country, rock, blues), Rog & Bob (folk, humor, beat), Carter & Connelley (environmental folk), Mr. Wonderful & the Magdaddies (swing, jazz, blues) and Slappin' Henry Blue (rock and blues). (For times, see Schedule, 9B)

The demonstrations will include weaving, chairmaking, spinning, basketmaking, wood carving, leathermaking, ironworking, pot throwing, storytelling and others.

Anita Hayden, who helped found the festival in 1987 and now is the organizer, said many people come for the music, which in the past has had a homegrown presentation.

This year's different. "We'll have our first real stage," she said. "This year we're getting away from the hay wagon."

The only concession is made to the trains which run through town seven to 15 times a day. "The bands have to stop when the train goes by," Hayden said.

A weaver who often does demonstrations at Black Forest Villages in Cape Girardeau, Hayden shares a space on the boardwalk with Allan Stuck, a silversmith and goldsmith. Both will exhibit their work during the festival.

Stuck, originally from Chicago, studied sculpture at SIU. His jewelry pieces are organic and unusual. For instance: earrings made of red tourmaline crystal, emeralds, a quartz crystal blade, diamonds and diamondback rattler teeth. He also makes a bear tooth necklace.

The earrings, he insists with a smile, "would be perfect for Cher."

The festival will offer an array of food, including ice cream, gyros, kettle corn and vegetarian fare.

Also on the schedule are readings by the Carbondale Stage Company and poetry reading beginning at 7:30 Saturday night.

Makanda is 8 miles south of Carbondale and 12 miles north of Anna off U.S. 51. Turn east on the Makanda Road at the yellow tower and proceed 2 miles to the Makanda Fest.

Makanda Fest '96 schedule

Friday

7:30 p.m. -- Georgy Rock

8:30 p.m. -- Organic Rain

9:30 p.m. -- Mike Williams

Saturday

10:30 a.m. -- Blue Heron

11:30 a.m. -- Free Radicals

1 p.m. -- Dorians

2:30 p.m. -- Jan Douglas

4 p.m. -- Natalie Withers

5:30 p.m.-- Rapture

Continuously -- The Peacocks

Sunday

Noon -- Natives

1:30 p.m. -- Rog & Bob

3 p.m. -- Carter & Connelley

4:30 p.m. -- Mr. Wonderful & the Magdaddies

5:15 p.m. -- Raffle

5:30 p.m. -- Slappin' Henry Blue