We had another great Destination Asia Festival Show
By many measures, the Prairie State Bonsai Society’s show at the Destination Asia Festival at The Morton Arboretum was one of the best ever.
One of the primary ways we measure our impact is by the number of people participating in the People’s Choice voting over the weekend. Most people are willing to cast a vote, although there are always a few sourpusses who refuse to participate.
On Friday, we had 320 votes this year versus 416 in 2022, but we were only open for two hours this year and I believe we were open three hours in 2022. After we closed on Friday, we had Mark Fields, our professional judge, critique the trees in the show and we videoed those comments for viewing by the members at the February meeting.
On Saturday, we received 927 votes, versus 653 in 2022. Perhaps the drizzle helped drive people into the Sycamore Room for shelter this year.
On Sunday, we had 947 votes, versus 332 in our rained-out version in 2022.
The bottom line is that we blew the socks off the results from last year, increasing our total attendance by 56%, from 1401 in 2022 to 2194 in 2023.
Congratulations to Dan Turner, who received the award for Best in Show for his Douglas Fir. And also, congratulations to Phil Mahliot for winning the People’s Choice award for his Chinese Elm, and also placing 3rd in the competition for his Juniper (Japanese Garden). The Chinese Elm received more than 17% of all the votes cast, so the competition was not really close. Matt Mazza also placed two trees in the People’s Choice top 10 (2nd place for his Ficus Benjamin V. Kiki forest and 6th place for his Trident Maple). Also, a newer member placed two trees in the top 10. Dennis Talag placed both 8th and 10th place for his two Dwarf Jade Penjing presentations.
Pictures of the winning trees are all on the website.
Other metrics to evaluate our success are the six workshops run, which were almost full. We presented four public demonstrations in the courtyard, one each in the morning and afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. We had quite a crowd around the demonstrations. Thanks to Matt Mazza and Larry Magee for making those presentations in addition to Mark Fields. The trees from all four demonstrations will be in future raffles.
Thank you to all of you who volunteered to help during the three days the show was open, both setup and teardown. We had several new volunteers and I received many positive comments about how much fun they had, which has also always been my experience.
Thank you to BC Bonsai for vending at the show. Jim, Linda, and Bill kept busy all weekend and Jim and Linda also each taught a workshop at Thornhill Education Center.
And most of all, thank you to Nick DiBattista, our Special Events Director, who chaired the event. Nick ran a great show and we have already been told by our contact person at the Arboretum that we should mark our calendar for next year’s festival.
We can all look forward to the 2024 Festival!
Midwest Bonsai Society 45th Annual Mid-America Bonsai Exhibition
I attended the Midwest Bonsai Society Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden and saw a number of our members there. The show was especially deemed a success for me this year in that I only went home with one new tree. (Self-control is not always present when I attend.) Several of our members showed trees in the show and some won ribbons as well.
September PSBS General Membership Meeting
Don’t forget that the September meeting will be pushed back one week to the second Wednesday of the month, due to the Labor Day holiday. Please mark your calendar for the meeting on September 13th. Hope to see you there!
Craig
