Ozarkers do the Artsfest Shuffle
FairCityNews.com | May 03, 2010 | Comments 0
Springfield, MO—Thousands of Artsfest attendees participated in the Artsfest Shuffle this past weekend, moving their feet at half the speed of normal pace. Slow walking and sidestepping were the main dance moves of choice among the herd of people who strolled Walnut Street.
“I’d always heard Artsfest was so crowded that you had to do a special dance just to make it from National to JQH street; this year I went and by golly, I had to do the Artsfest Shuffle all the way!” said Norman Kymacher of Reeds Spring, MO.
The crowded masses literally forced anyone walking the streets to do the shuffle. “I was going from craft stand to craft stand and didn’t even realize I was doing the Artsfest Shuffle. After 30 minutes I was like ‘I’m doing it! I’m doing it’,” said Lacey Coffman, a junior at Drury University.
The Artsfest Shuffle first emerged as the bipedal terrestrial locomotion of choice 30 years ago due to the popularity of Springfield Regional Arts Council’s Artsfest on Walnut street. Since that time visitors have shuffled along the street, taking pit stops at craft tents when a particular piece of art caught their eye.
“I was doing the Artsfest Shuffle while talking to my wife, who was behind me. I turned back to look ahead and the man next to me and I briefly held hands because the street was so crowded. Our hands literally smacked into each other. I thought I was going to be swung around thus starting the Artsfest Swing,” said David Donaldson.
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