Wimberley’s StoryFest toasts Texas culture

Greeted by perfect fall weather, Story-Fest 2023 kicked off with music, cowboy cuisine and campfire singing and storytelling this weekend at 7A Ranch’s Pioneer Town. A project of the Wimberley Valley Arts and Cultural Alliance, the three-day event drew in musicians, songwriters, storytellers, filmmakers, chefs, plein air painters and history enthusiasts to celebrate the story in all of its many forms.

Fresh from his Big Barn Dance Music Festival, legendary Taos, NM musician Bill Hearne headlined the Thursday night kickoff at the Opera House. Ticket holders partook of the music and savored delicious cowboy cuisine. Earlier that day, the Wimberley Institute of Cultures led visitors to seven historical destinations on a walking tour as part of the festivities.

On Friday, the Opera House was again the destination for a screening of “Honky Tonk Heaven: The Legend of the Broken Spoke.” The 74-minute documentary was filmed at the iconic Austin dancehall of the same name and featured interviews with music giants Willie Nelson, Kimmie Rhodes, Gary P. Nunn, Ray Benson, Joe Ely, Jerry Jeff Walker, Randy Travis and Dale Watson, and others. Writer and historian Joe Nick Patoski, a former staff writer for Texas Monthly Magazine, was also featured.

Directed by Brenda Mitchell and produced by Jeffrey Brown who were both in attendance, the award-winning documentary profiled the late James White and his wife Annetta who promoted and preserved dance hall culture in Austin for 50 years. The audience learned that the documentary is newly available on Amazon Prime. After a brief question and answer session, participants joined musicians around a campfire behind the Opera House.

On Saturday morning, the annular eclipse took center stage, with stories about strange events that happened during other eclipses, and the “Navajo Sunpainter.” In the spirit of the eclipse, artists created cyanotype prints from objects onto lengths of fabric, creating natural murals of found and treasured objects.

At 2 p.m., storytellers climbed the Opera House stage to regale the audience with entertaining accounts of life in Wimberley and beyond its borders. Emceed by Melvin E. Edwards who said that stories are a community’s common bonds, he confessed nervousness and related the advice he once received “to imagine the audience naked.” He charmed the audience by telling them that the picture in his mind “is a whole lot different now that the audience is older.” Storytellers included David Bisett, Monica Michell, Maggie Goodman, Rodger Marion, Dee Rambeau, Carroll Wilson, Joe Kotarba and Jim Denham. A reception to wrap up StoryFest 2023 followed at the Art on 12 gallery.