Redneck Festival

Linda and I have decided not to have a booth at the Redneck Festival in Weissport next year.  We’ve put up a booth ever since the first Redneck Festival in 2008 when we were “Rednecks for Obama.”  That was an exciting year; people wanted their pictures taken next to our sign, and we also provided cover for the organizers, who were under attack from the Bethlehem NAACP for holding a racist event.

We have had fun at the festivals.  We took pictures of people in funny or cute or gross tee shirts and put them up on a Redneck Tee-Shirt Hall of Fame.  We gave away hot peppers.  We registered voters.  

This year was a chore.  First of all, the organizers decided to expand to Friday, which meant that we had to be there three days.  We were also stuck in a rather obscure area, while the Republicans and the Tea Party booths were in a prime location.  Finally, I did not do a good job with our booth.  The Republicans had a huge sign that said “Register to Vote Here.”  We had a small sign.  They had a table where people could sit to register.  We didn’t.  They had a guy in the walkway confronting people; Linda and I are not comfortable doing that.  They probably registered 25 people, we registered one.

The Tea Party booth had a weapons give-away.  If you paid ten dollars, you had a chance to win all kinds of guns, including an assault rifle.  Just for signing up, you received to mugs with Rush Limbaugh’s picture on them.  How do we compete with that?

Next year we will be at the Earth Day Festival in Jim Thorpe.  They are our people.  The Republicans can have the Redneck Festival all to themselves.