2008 Rossini Festival
I spent most of the day at the 2008 Rossini Festival in downtown Knoxville. It was a blast, and I'm exhausted.
Just like last year, rain threatened this year's street party. Unlike last year, the rain stopped right 
before the street festival started. Although I haven't seen an official head count, I would guess the crowd at around 100,000.
Throughout the day, I posted updates to Twitter and Utterz from my phone. Those two services are perfect for events like this, although the pretty much constant updating kept me as busy as the proverbial one-armed paper hanger.
The food was awesome, the streets were filled with craft vendors from all over, and 
some excellent musicians kept the crowd entertained. All in all, I think it was a big success.
I'm still not exactly sure why a festival celebrating Rossini, opera, and Italy would feature flamenco or belly dancers, but those performers were featured again this year. They've become something of a Rossini tradition by now, so I guess I should just accept the non sequitur and go with the flow. They were outstanding, as always.
Sometime tomorrow, I'll upload some video from today's festival. My photos from today are here, including some shots of a really strange medieval fencing bout at the intersection of Gay Street and Church Avenue. It was bizarre, but not nearly as strange as the phalanx of Roman soldiers who marched down Gay Street last year.
Only in Knoxville.