<< Back 7/17/02 Folkmoot’s success says something good about WNC SMN Folkmoot USA, the international folk dance festival that gets under way this week, is a unique event for Western North Carolina. This year, though, a couple of unrelated factors have combined to make the festival even more special. First on that list is the opening of the new Folkmoot Friendship Center, which had an official ribbon cutting July 15. The festival’s organizers had nurtured a long and close relationship with the Haywood County School System, but setting up Waynesville Middle School every summer to house hundreds of performers — and then tearing it down just a few days before teachers started back to school — had become a major scheduling headache for the festival and the school system. So the festival’s board of directors worked out a deal to turn the old Hazelwood Elementary School into a permanent, year-round home for Folkmoot. Accomplishing that took thousands of hours of volunteer manual labor, donated professional services from architects, engineers and others, and a loan from Clyde Savings Bank. In addition to being used for the festival, the facility will be available for conferences, camps, receptions, and other community use. A blight in Hazelwood has become a bright spot. The Friendship Center is a living, tangible example of exactly why Folkmoot has blossomed into such a successful festival. This festival celebrates cultural exchange and friendship, no more and no less. The volunteers who made the Friendship Center happen showed that those ideals are important and worth the sacrifice of their time and energy. That is a wonderful tribute to Folkmoot and the greater Western North Carolina community. It’s impossible to talk about this year’s festival without alluding to Sept. 11. International relations around the world were strained by the tragic events of that day, and many wondered if pulling off a festival like Folkmoot could happen. As it turns out, festival organizers found that travel visas and other bureaucratic paperwork were no harder — or easier — to deal with this year than in year’s past. In fact, it seems the downturn in the world economy and financial problems proved more daunting this year than acquiring travel papers. But the festival has happened, as organizers and volunteers knew it would all along. People of different religions and nationalities can still come together to dance and become friends despite the events of the last year. And every summer when the dancers and dignitaries come to these mountains, they’ll find a home awaiting them.