Day 4: Brookings SD and Black Sheep Coffee (Sioux Falls)

We took off to Brookings bright and early to set up at Mission Coffee House. Mission is a cool coffee house located in a Lutheran Church. They raise funds through the business to support good causes around the world. We were greeted by Carol Van Liere who fed us a yummy lunch and we commenced to setting up a very nice spread in the green grass of the churches back yard. It was the nicest looking setup so far. Unfortunately no one came. There was a wedding going on at the church so we saw dressed up people coming and going but other than that we had no visitors. Well my philosophy is if the crowd doesn't come then go to the crowd. We loaded up the mural in the back of the truck and drove around to find people. We came upon a large group of people having a co-op picnic with a gaggle of children running around. They were happy to let the kids go to town on the mural. Seconds after setting up the mural it was attacked by a dozen kids who feverishly painted until in about 15 minutes it was done. We thanked everyone and loaded it up and headed back.

Back at the fest site we two people (a lady with disabilities and an assistant) finally showed up to do art. They had heard about it through the agencies for people with disabilities that we contacted and sent posters to.

We packed up said thanks and goodbye to Carol who said she didn't understand why people didn't show up. She even gave me a newspaper clipping of an article about the party (with two big pictures) that they published from a press release I sent out.

While it seemed a bust it was a positive learning experience. I know now what categories of people to contact and what it feels like when you know they are committed to the event.

We will always need to confirm that we will have groups of kids, artists/creative types of all ages, people with disabilities and folks on their golden years. I have ideas now for the future.

We headed back to Sioux Falls and stopped at Lallibela's, one of my favorite spots to eat. This is authentic Ethiopian cuisine eaten community style. Pieces of spongy bread larger than pizza are brought out on big platters with awesome sauces and veggies in piles over the bread. No silverware, you break off a piece of bread, grab the food and toss it in your mouth. Danny asked if he cold eat somewhere else and this time I said "nope, you have to try this." 45 minutes later Danny was on his cell phone to his dad to tell him he had tried a new food and loved it.

We set up our music stuff at Black Sheep Coffee House just a few doors down from Lallibela's. Our friends Tamera and Lennie came out to hang with us, as well as The Smiths and the Roerich's. I told the story of the Fallout and stellar performance were had by Jeremy, Ill Medicine and Better Ride.