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FloydFest after five years – Roanoke.com
![extra_floydfest_0722[1]](http://www.floydfest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/extra_floydfest_07221.jpg "extra_floydfest_0722[1]")
FloydFest after five years – Roanoke.com
FloydFest was born and nearly died on Sept. 27, 2002.
That was the day Kris Hodges and Erika Johnson collapsed into each other’s arms, sobbing. They fell to the floor of the tiny bathroom in back of the cramped mobile home that served as FloydFest headquarters. Gale-force winds and sheets of rain battered the trailer like it was a lost fishing boat caught in a storm.
It sounded as if everything they had worked for was crashing down around them. The couple had spent a year planning FloydFest, then called the Floyd World Music Festival, named after the town of Floyd, which serves as the event’s planning headquarters. The event was envisioned as a weekend celebration of peace, love and roots music unfold ing on a grassy plateau off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Patrick County.
Except that it was now a muddy plateau. One thing Hodges and Johnson hadn’t considered was that late September is hurricane season. They realized it when the remnants of a hurricane named Isidore tromped its muddy feet all over their party.
Hundreds of people showed up instead of thousands. Poor Stacey Earle got absolutely soaked on the main stage during her first set. A woman danced in the rain shouting, “These are the birth waters!” A portable toilet was toppled by the wind. A parking lot had to be closed because of the mud.
FloydFest appeared finished before it started.
