Muncie's annual Festival On The Green hosted hundreds of people on Ball State's Arts Terrace on Saturday afternoon including musicians, dancers, cooks, artists and a kiddie parade.
The sounds of strings and brass played by the Muncie Symphony Orchestra brought out familiar songs from movies like "The Wizard of Oz," "Harry Potter" and "Snow White" in front of the Fine Arts Building and Museum of Art. But before the music was played, a festival of art and education was buzzing under the trees.
The Ancient Arts and American Belly Dance Studio handed out information about its classes while dancing and giving people a taste of what cultural belly dances are like.
"Belly dancing is an ancient dance that was started by women for women thousands of year ago and it's really great because once you are a part of it you really feel that golden thread of sisterhood that goes back all the way to the first women so we really enjoy it," local belly dancer Elizabeth Wray said. "We really encourage women of all shapes and sizes and ages to join us. We just want to dance and have a good time, and it's a great sisterhood so we are very passionate about it."
Along the festival area spread out across the Quad was a group of classic restored cars, one of which had a birthday from 1948.
"I was 11 years old when my dad bought it and I would pull wagons [with it]," the car's owner Dick Kline said. "Didn't have a driver's license or anything but that's what we did back in those days. You can use them in the field and you can drive it to town on the weekend so that's how they came about making them."
Kline was talking about his 1948 Willys Jeep he had restored to its original state, including its red wheels.
"I went to Toledo, Ohio, got the original paint charge from it," he said. "It had red wheels and black when it came, not too many of them were made that way so it's just a family vehicle. My daughter said she's going to keep it when I die."
Along the path of booths and shops, there were several different artists who were displaying and selling their craft, including Native American crafter Rob Samply. His booth displayed colorful dream catchers, rock tomahawks and peace pipes and ceremonial pipes made from animal horns and antlers.
Another artist was Selma Middle School eighth grader No+âl Keith who was selling earrings that she made herself. But she only kept a small part of the money she made.
"Half the proceeds go to me and then half the proceeds go to a charitable cause in the community, which varies depending on the need and tonight, half [of] the proceeds are going to Christian Ministries Food Bank," Keith said.
Once the sun started to set, the Muncie Symphony Orchestra began its movie program with a suite from "Snow White" while picnic attendees watched. Some picnics were scenes from the movies themselves.
The Turner family wore red, white and blue to show their patriotism and love for the film "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Joe Turner said it was necessary because of his love for the actor Jimmy Cagney who stared in the film, but also liked an excuse to wear the colors of the flag.
"It's close to [July] fourth so we thought 'What the heck? We'd do it,'" he said. "We come every year. We just haven't gone this far out yet."
There was also a steampunk-themed picnic titled "Around The World In Eight Foods" created by the Rice-Snow family.
"We really like our steam punk costumes, and we wanted to wear them," Jennifer Rice-Snow said. Scott Rice-Snow said they created their costumes from items they found at Goodwill.
Jennifer Rice-Snow said she enjoyed wearing her costume, but was keenly focused on another picnic; the "Breakfast At Tiffany's" group.
"We keep looking at the 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' group over there," she said. "They look pretty awesome; I think they're our big competition."
The "Breakfast At Tiffany's" group consisted of Ball State students Kasey Needham, Hannah Strayhorn and Celia Villacres, all of which were dressed in a classic Audrey Hepburn style. Candlesticks and fancy entr+â-¬es accompanied the women in their black dresses, white gloves and pearl jewelry.
"My mom and I, we were discussing what we were going to do for this picnic and she said 'Oh, we should do 'Breakfast At Tiffany's','" Villacres said of their inspiration. "At first I said 'Mom, it's dumb,' but then we thought about it, and we thought about all of shiny things we could have and I really like shiny things."
Strayhorn said they felt their chances of winning a prize were good.
"A lot of people have been coming up to us and asking what our number is and asking us where the voting table is, so that seems like a good sign," she said during the event. "The judges were smiling a lot."
During intermission, the judges announced the prizes. The "Breakfast at Tiffany's" group won a dinner for four at Amazing Joe's, four tickets for the AMC Showplace 12 and a CD of jazz singer Jackie Allen and the Muncie Symphony Orchestra.
Other prizes included picnic baskets, various cheeses, wine glasses and bottles of wine.
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