For a medium sized city Tucson has a lot of very talented artistic people. Every once in a while they have a ‘Made in Tucson’ market. Like many of the other markets it is located near Fourth Avenue, this time a few blocks along 7th Street.
This market was restricted to 300 vendors, with over 500 applying to participate.
There were all sorts of wares offered for sale.
Rightfully so, the artists are proud of their work and more than happy to explain their craft.
The food court included a number of trucks and one ‘food horse trailer’!
The Tucson Book Festival occurred the weekend of March 4th and 5th. This festival brings hundreds of authors and over 100,000 attendees to the University of Arizona campus.
While there were a number of ‘big name’ people presenting (Bernie Sanders and Linda Ronstadt were the headliners), many are less well known authors and publishers trying to get their work noticed.
In addition it takes lots of volunteers who help out and participants who entertain the crowd.
Many of the authors had their own tents, but the good folks from New Mexico had a tent to promote a number of their authors.
The French Language publisher representative had a flair about her.
There were numerous stages that presented entertainment, as well as author talks. This segment was featuring Swedish traditional dancers.
A number of tents were set up for recording interviews.
One of the many volunteers who keep the festival running.
Every author had times set aside for meet and greet, complete with personalized autographs of their books.
This character had an old VW bus as the Comic Bookmobile.
Boston based Lovern Gordon is a prominent author focusing on domestic abuse, and how it impacts the lives of the victims.
A few more of the people of the festival.
The Tucson Audubon Society was one of many public service organizations who had representation at the Festival.
Most of the stages featured authors giving talks. The Tucson Book Festival is a great event, well worth an annual visit.
Historic 4th Avenue in Tucson was once again a site for a parade, this time to celebrate the pets of Pima County.
The parade is popular enough to be streamed live by some local TV personalities. It attracted plenty of participants and a wide collection of dog breeds.
Some people had the appearance of coming further away than others.
We were fortunate enough of getting a seat on a temporarily closed streetcar platform in the middle of the street, as the dogs made their way down the street and tracks.
Some have overcome great obstacles just to be able to participate.
Some caught rides.
Tucson really went to the dogs this day! A big shout out to the Pima Animal Care Center and the other shelters in town who watch out for these wonderful animals.
The 3 week long Tucson Gem, Mineral and Art Shows is done for 2023, but not without looking back at some of the colorful and interesting people from all over the world we met at the shows.
Many of them were working on their art onsite.
Some offered sounds to go with the incredible sights.
A few insisted I take their photos!
We end the shows with some good karma provided by crystal vibes. See you next year.
As mentioned in an earlier posting the Tucson Gem and Mineral Shows are far more than just gems and minerals. One of the more colorful, and larger shows, is the African Art Show.
There were rows and rows of vendors with all sorts of colorful items.
First up – a Ghana Djembe.
A Benin bronze statue.
A grouping of wooden giraffes.
A Bembe carving from the Congo.
Many of the booths had walls of masks.
Senegalese woven grass baskets.
A collection of masks from the Congo.
According to the all knowing Google Images these small carvings are most likely from the Ivory Coast. Once again proving I should take better notes.
This bust has a great mix of carving and bead work.
The same booth had these amazing full bead work sculptures.
People from all over the world come to Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. There are more than 40 different locations throughout the city where more than 4000 vendors have booths and tents set up. This posting is for a visit to the Kino Gem and Mineral Show.
With the show running for more than 2 weeks, more posting will follow.
Some of the vendors are wholesale only.
Most however are geared to the general public. All have an eclectic collection of items for sale, starting with the minerals and gems.
The majority have collections of more finished items.
Others aren’t even gems, but still make for great photos.
The Barrett Jackson Auction is so large that many automotive vendors have exhibits, with entire massive tents set up for them.
A company called Radical Racing of Canada build reasonably priced (for race cars) ready to race cars.
A prototype Lincoln Star.
A group known as the Future Car Collectors had a show on the grounds as well, with some very cool cars in a great setting.
Let’s take a closer look at the purple Lamborghini Diablo. Not really sure why they call it a future car collector, as this has clearly been collectable for decades.
A BMW M4
Volvo wagons aren’t normally the type of car to be tricked out, but it works.
There were some great paint jobs.
Another in the category of ‘not normally tricked out’ – a Tesla.
After checking out the Future Car Collectors show I made my way to a row of very long tents, with even more cars headed to the auction.
A customized 1935 Chrysler Airflow.
A 1930 Chevrolet Paddy Wagon.
1966 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham Custom Sedan.
Another customized classic – a 1957 Lincoln Continental Mark II. Note the size of the tent, 5 rows of cars that was about 300′ long, and there were 6 of these tents in addition to the huge completely indoor tents seen in Part 1 of the auction.
The history of post season college football games have grown over the years. In 1940 there were 5, by 1970 the number was up to 11. From 1990 until today it has grown from 19 to a stunning 41 today.
Tucson was one of those 19 games in 1990, and have continued, for the most part, until today. The current bowl is sponsored by some group called Barstool Sports, resulting in a logo with a red barstool with the Arizona Bowl name.
The open space on the University of Arizona campus held the tailgate festival. There a number of events were happening, including a very talented Latino band playing.
The game featured the University of Wyoming Cowboys against the Ohio University Bobcats. The Wyoming team, and band, had a strong contingent in town to support them.
To give it a true Tucson feel there were a number of mariachi bands playing outside, and around the concourses of the stadium before the game. All were very talented.
The festivities continued as game time approached., with Air Force sky divers and planes flying over.
The Wyoming team was lead onto the field by a horse and rider.
The Ohio University band had an impressive display of dancing while playing.
Oh – and there was eventually a football game. After more than 4 hours the OU Bobcats prevailed in overtime.
Normally a trip up the Red Line to Addison Station means it is baseball season. But not today, with snow on the ground.
For the past few years the area around Wrigley Field has held a Christmas Market. This year they expanded it to include events on the field inside the stadium, calling the festival ‘Winterland’.
The concourses were decorated for the season.
But it was when you popped out of the tunnel onto the field that the real magic happens. We are standing (on plastic flooring) in left field of the best baseball stadium in the world (sorry Boston). Even though it is dormant in the winter, we are next to the famed ivy covered outfield walls.
The giant baseball in front of the equally famous bleachers was for taking selfies.
For enough money you can rent one of the luxury chalets in front of the out of town scoreboard.
There were a number of activities available to participate in.
It was surreal to watch a small kiddie train run around the infield.
A giant Cubby Bear watched over the scene.
A carousel was located outside the stadium in the Christmas Market area.
Least you forget it is still home of the Chicago Cubs!
RDZ Photography 