Rochester Deaf Festival Review!

G'day Everyone!

Last Saturday, June 9th, 2012 was the 4th Annual Rochester Deaf Festival.
Now I apologize to my readers of my blog here. Yes I could have announced and shared that info too. Unfortunately, I did not think to do that.

You see, Sherlock had planned to go to Washington, DC for a job fair and then go down to the DC Gay Pride Festival and review that event among the deaf gay community there. But, Sherlock never got a chance to go due to the demands of an elderly parent that wanted her car fixed sooner rather than wait for next week when Sherlock got back. So, Sherlock gave in to the demands to appease the parent and blew his DC trip apart.

At the last minute, Sherlock decided to head up to Rochester, NY and visit the area. After arrival at a hotel, he picked up the Democrat and Chronicle (D&C) newspaper of Friday and scanned (quick read) it. Not one iota of an article or announcement about the Rochester Deaf Festival. Sherlock was feeling really concerned about it.

Saturday morning, Sherlock said "I'm sure there's something in the D&C newspapers at the last minute because they always publish a list of events going on in the area today and tomorrow". He picked up the paper, scanned it, and again big disappointment. Even looking at the falling heavy rain that morning, he wondered if the Rochester Deaf Festival was really going to happen that day. Eventually, the skies cleared away and left the ground very wet.

Sherlock drove to the Penfield, NY area and got a little lost. The reason why is because the area had changed with the times and things were different. After finding many of the landmark clues of where Ellison Park would be, he finally found the Rochester Deaf Festival site.

Getting there early was a big bonus to grab a good parking spot. However, the parking lot was riddled with pot holes filled with water. It was kind of like looking at the moon crater lot out of a movie set plot. But looking at his mud splattered car, he didn't care. The day's adventure just begun.

Rather than putting on his trademark Sherlock hat, he decided that he would have an easier time to investigate the festival and gather information for his article by using his PSU hat he's less known for.
But didn't stay undercover for long! A friend of his recognized him instantly at the registration line.

The Rochester Deaf Festival itself was held in a two fields. One to have lunch and other vendors and the other field had different vendors selling their wares and information out there.
While the day was HOT and muggy, Sherlock found that he disagreed of seeing a vendor selling alcohol since there was a lack of food vendors, it is in his opinion that someone should have shut it down to prevent problems. But at least two vendors were making bucks for selling water and soda on hand. Cold but good!

Despite the fields were wet and swampy from the early morning heavy rains, the Deaf Festival had a party atmosphere. Not a carnival, but a very fun festival. Sherlock's good friend, Deaf UFC Fighter: Matt "The Hammer" Hamill was present. Many other great entertainers were also present for the day that kept the main stage very busy and fun.

The Rochester Deaf Festival staff kept busy and organized despite the problems to pull off a very successful day. At the end of the day of raffle drawings, announcements, and of course: Dreams to make the 5th Annual Rochester Deaf Festival much bigger and better for 2013. The location will change for next year. The announcement of that has the Deaf Community very excited that there will be improvements!

At the end of a hot long steamy day, Sherlock was glad to be low key of gathering information. He was able to meet old friends, new friends, and also sad to hear the death of another friend he knows. But that is life.

After a good night sleep and awoke to find the Sunday D&C paper to run an article on the Rochester Deaf Festival itself. That, Sherlock says, is a disappointment because the average deaf person doesn't always own a computer or reads web pages that much.Some Deaf people do depend on the newspapers and good deaf friends as well.
Sherlock learned that the announcement of the Rochester Deaf Festival was more of an on-line event announcement through their webpage: The Rochester Deaf Festival, as well as being posted on-line at www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com. My hope is that next year, whoever runs their public relations staff will make sure that the Rochester Deaf Festival will be listed for the weekend event to come to. Even at the last minute.

Sherlock hopes that while many of the Rochester Deaf Festival (RDF) organizers and volunteers have done an amazing job for the last 4 years, he believes that RDF team knows they must improve to make the 5th year event better. So give these people feed back if you've been there. The more they know, the better they can improve on. Where to do that? Use: Rochester Deaf Festival Feedback

Sherlock is going to bring his group of friends up for next year. Very much looking forward to it.
One last thing, these RDF organizers kept calm and carried on very well despite early day rain. I say a big bravo! Until then, look forward to 2013!