Sirius Rising - 2001
Brushwood Folklore Center - Sherman, NY
7/9/2001 to 7/15/2001

This festival has always been one of my favorites. It started out as a time for vendors to get to Brushwood early and get setup and has now grown into a respectable festival in it's own right. It smaller than Starwood at the beginning of the week but grows quickly. It usually starts out with about 200 or so people on Monday and grows to over 1,000 by Saturday and Sunday.

This year was a normal year until Tuesday night, 7/10 at about 10:41 PM. There was a thunderstorm off in the distance and people were either watching the lightning show or had gone to bed early. I had gone back to my campsite to make sure that the regalia booth was closed up tight for the storm. Then it hit! It, was a full-scale tornado that came almost straight through the center of the main field.

Now I believe people when they say that a tornado sounds like a freight train is right next to you. My booth stayed up, but I had all I could do to hang on a tarp that I had as a sunshade on the back of it. I found out later that several people had tried to hold onto tarps and were taken for a ride in the air before they let go.

It was over a quickly as it had started, only lasting about 30 seconds. I came out from behind the booth to a scene of almost complete destruction. People were trying to help those who had been hurt, others were checking all the porta-johns to make sure nobody had been trapped in them when they blew over, and others were trying to find their belongings. I talked to one woman who was looking for her tent. It had been blow away with her and all her belongings in it; she had fallen out and didn't know where the tent ended up!

Fortunately, no one was badly hurt. There were only minor injuries. In the morning, the field looked like a war zone. Many of the merchants had lost their booths and much of their stock. The pictures below were taken Wednesday morning about 7:30 AM.

The people came together to help those who had lost the most. There was a raffle held later in the week and people that could, gave donations to help those in need. The merchants bought new booths and replaced what merchandise they could and the festival went on!

On Thursday morning, about 3:30 AM, I was awakened by the sound of someone yelling "Fire!" One of the RV's had caught on fire after someone had left a candle burning in it while they went down to the fire circle. Enough people in the area had fire extinguishers so that the fire was put out quickly and when the local fire department got there, all they had to do was make sure it was out. This was another reminder of how important it is to NEVER leave candles burning in tents or RV's!

I sold $50 worth of regalia at this festival and traveled 468 to and from it and had to replace one 10' X 20' pavillion that was destroyed. It's in the first picture below.

Clicking on any of the pictures below will bring up a large (640 X 480) version of the picture.

This is what was left of a 10' X 20' pavillion after the storm.

This was the scene looking East along the bonfire area.

This was the scene looking East into the main field.

Some of the trees in the Fairy Woods section of the land.

Another one of the large trees in the Fairy Woods section.

Another view of the main field.

This was looking toward the RV area.

This is one of the merchant's booth that was folded up.

This is looking South along the field. My booth, with the pink sign on it, stayed up.

One veiw of the RV that caught fire.

And a closer view of the main part that was burned.

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Last updated 11/14/01.