Archive: Around Town

Lansing Harbor FestivalEven the weather can't keep a good festival down!  After a damaging storm forced Lansing Harbor Festival organizers to postpone the event for one week, the lineup is as exciting as ever, and this time good weather is predicted.  If you arrive at 10 AM when the festival is scheduled to begin you will be in time for the official opening at the park entrance.  WHCU's Dave Vieser will be your Master of Ceremonies for the day.

The official Lansing Harbor Festival Web site (www.lansingharborfest.org) has the most up to date information about the changed schedule.  Confirmed bands include the Lansing High School Cabaret conducted by Lucas Hibbard (10:15) AM), The Burns Sisters (2PM), Pete Panek and the Blue Cats (4 PM) and Tom Knight and the Blue Moon (6 PM).  There will be music throughout the day.

	If at first you don't succeed... Lansing Harbor Festival Chairwoman Karen Veaner is calling it 'The little festival with a big heart' as people are rallying to make the festival a success after it was postponed due to a freak storm that left 1200 homes without power last week.  Lansing Community Council (LCC) volunteers spent the day setting up tents, booths, banners, and parking areas, but when the storm hit late in the afternoon, it was all blown down. "The damage was unbelievable," Park Superintendent Steve Colt says.  "That was proven the next morning.  The person at the gate Saturday morning turned away a constant stream of cars coming in for Harbor Festival.  If you didn't live here you wouldn't have known what happened.  When people got there they were stunned at what had happened." (Click Here for related story)

The Baker Cup
Chicken Barbecue Competition
A highlight will be the first annual Baker Cup Chicken Barbecue Sauce Competition.  Contestants will go ladle to ladle to impress a panel of judges that will include WHCU's Dave Vieser, Village of Lansing's Mayor Donald Hartill, and Lansing Town Supervisor Steve Farkas.  The competition honors Bob Baker, the 'Edison of the Chicken Industry,' who developed more than 50 innovations for preparing chicken, and is probably most famous in Lansing for his Cornell Sauce.  Vieser will be MCing the entire festival.  Baker's son Dale and grandson Robert will also be judging. 


The original plan was to charge an entry fee, but that has been dropped to attract more contestants.  The grand prize is $100 for the winner plus an additional $100 that the winner can designate to one of the programs LCC raises funds for.  The judging will begin at 12:30 PM, and the winner will be announced at 5:30 PM on the band stand.  Bob's wife Jackie Baker will present the trophies.

The Bands
The Burns Sisters -- Annie, Marie, and Jeannie -- have been singing together all their lives. Nationally known and Ithaca favorites, the sisters' blend distinctive harmonies in folk, rock, and country styles.  Their newest CD, 'Wild Bouquet,' is one of many the sisters have released, including solo CDs by each sister.

Dave Panek and the Blue Cats are an Ithaca staple.  As hosts of the longest running blues jam session under one roof, which is held every week at The Nines, their sound is electronic blues.

Tom Knight and the Blue Moon features three lead singers, stellar vocal harmonies, a hot horn section, and amazing solos.  The band's distinctive, vibrant sound is reminiscent of good times past, with a sly modern spin.

Activities
There will be plenty to do in the Kids Tent, with activities scheduled throughout the day.  The ScienceCenter will be there helping kids to make wind socks, a fossil lab from the Museum of the Earth, AC Moore provided sun catchers, Asbury Church will be doing face painting, The Plantsman Nursery's Dan Segal will be doing plantings with the kids, Lansing Drop-In will be making necklaces, Jay and Carol Engels will be showing some of their alpacas, the Tompkins County SPCA will be planting catnip, Lansing Youth Services' Isabel Bazaldua will be doing a variety of activities including 'recycled art,' face painting and temporary tattoos, and at 2PM there will be a frozen T shirt contest.  Cayuga Lake Seido's Robin McColley will do a karate demonstration at 4PM.

Food, Crafts, and Vendors

Be sure to come hungry, because the Lansing Lions Club, The Cinnamon Shoppe, The Lost Dog Cafe, North East Pizza, Wok Village, and Ice Cream by Dick Brecht will all be serving in the food vendor's area near Pavillion B.  More than 35 local food, business, non-profit, and craft vendors are lined up, with diverse offerings from Amish furniture to health and nutritional products, from alpacas to hand made pottery, flowers, and Tupperware.  Tompkins County Solid Waste plans a booth, as does the Lansing Community Library Center, Lansingville Ladies Auxiliary, and Lansing Housing Authority.  Lansing Chiropractic, Wood Wind Sundries, and Francine Designing Jewelry are among the many businesses that will be represented.  Retired Lansing 6th Grade English Teacher Judy Hinderliter will have plenty of games for kids at the Youth Activities Pavilion, right next to the food vendors.

Lansing's Main Street

Organizers say the point of the festival is to provide a 'Main Street" for the Lansing community, to celebrate its people and history, and to allow local programs, not-for-profits, and businesses to show what they are all about.  In keeping with this theme, festival bands will be the first ever to perform on the new band stand, donated to the Town by the Lansing Lion's Club.  Club volunteers not only raised money to pay for the structure, but actually built it, racing against time to get it ready for the festival.

The festival is sponsored by the Lansing Community Council (LCC), which helps to fund local programs including the Lansing Drop-in Center, Lansing Recreation Department, Lansing Youth Services, Lansing Older Adult Program, and more.  For a decade LCC hosted Lansing Day, a much smaller version of the event.

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