Roots Festival Offers Cross-Cultural Variety for Community

It was a show where more of the audience was on stage than in the audience. Headliner Buckwheat Zydeco’s fingers danced along the keyboard of his accordion, sweat pooling around the gold rims of his sunglasses. He boogied on the dance floor that emerged right in front of him.

“I’m going to give you some Creole jazz right he-uh,” he said.

It was the Common Ground on the Hill Roots Festival, held July 9 and 10 at the Carroll County Farm Museum.

The festival, in its 14th year, is a culmination of the two cross-cultural "Traditions Weeks" at Common Ground, according to Executive Director Walt Michael. For two weeks, July 3-8 and July 10-15, artists from around the globe descended on McDaniel College to teach their artforms. 

“You’re seeing the artists who are in Common Ground, but you’re seeing them performing, not just teaching,” he said. “You see them perform some during Traditions Week, but this is the time where they show us what they do as artists.”

In addition, Michael solicits “headline” acts to attend the festival. This year’s is Detroit’s "legendary" sacred steel group the Calvin Cook Band, and multiple Grammy-winner Buckwheat Zydeco, who has played with the likes of Eric Clapton.

“It was a great honor for me to look at all the coaches together and learn and see so many instruments and how well and excellent the people played,” said Cook, the lead singer and sacred steel player of the Calvin Cook Band. “And a lot of people in the world don’t get a chance to hear how good these people are.”

Cook said this is his first time attending Common Ground on the Hill, and that the emotions he tries to communicate on stage fit perfectly with the goals of the camp.

“I try to bring on a spiritual feeling of where I come from, the church,” he said. “And to let people know through the music that God can lift them up no matter what they’re going through or what kind of problems they’re having.”

According to Linda Van Hart, Common Ground's visual arts coordinator, the Common Ground board attempts to foster a certain positive, artistic environment both at the festival and during the Traditions weeks' classes.

 “I want to craft a program where the instructors are not only gifted, but who get what we’re doing at Common Ground,” she said. 

And that’s why the festival keeps expanding, Van Hart said, as Common Ground continues to bring unique artists to the community that no one would ever see otherwise.

"Thirty dollars for a weekend pass to see over 30 visual artists and 100 musical artists is a great deal," she said. “What do you pay for Merriweather? Where else can you get this variety?” 

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