more on fools

here's what the ann arbor news had to say about the festifools:
i am so happy for mark and shoshana. and all.

Foolish fun at new Ann Arbor festival
Tuesday, April 03, 2007

The FestiFools parade on Sunday turned a small section of downtown Ann Arbor into an energized, oddball example of community-based art - an event we hope is the start of a spring tradition.

FestiFools - with its huge, fanciful papier-mâché puppets, street dancers, drummers and general raucous frivolity - is the vision of Mark Tucker and the Street Theater Art Project, or START. It evolved from a public art class that Tucker teaches at the University of Michigan, and involved local businesses and community members as well as U-M students.

The university link is an important one.

"There are students who go four years (to U-M) and don't know where Main Street is,'' Shoshana Hurand, a graduate student of social work and the project's assistant director, told The News. "This forces students to interact with the community.''

And interact they did. The parade route on Sunday afternoon spanned only the block of Main Street between Liberty and William, but the sidewalks were packed with spectators - wide-eyed children and adults alike, clapping to the drumbeat, cheering, dancing.

Some of the towering puppets had overt political and social messages, some taking digs at polluters and corporate greed. But they were all overwhelmingly unique, whimsical and impressively outrageous.

The event, coupled with the sunny warmth of an early spring day, drew people to the downtown area, many of whom stayed after the parade to shop at the stores or eat at the restaurants.

That's a good thing, too.

So we tip our oversized papier-mâché hat to Tucker and his accomplices for bringing FestiFools to town. April in Ann Arbor might never be the same.



©2007 Ann Arbor News
© 2007 Michigan Live. All Rights Reserved.