The Express Yourself festival in East City Park on Saturday showcased a flurry of local art and performance.
Children played carelessly on the park’s playground while performers waxed poetic and political for the audience dancing next to the stage or reclining in the grass.
Jasun “Plaedo” Wellman, the event’s coordinator, walked through the crowd handing out small white paper rectangles with the words “I believe in you” on one side and “Imagine” on the other.

Wellman introduced himself with a lighthearted smile and a handshake and said what his vision for the event was. He placed a pair of holographic marijuana leaf sunglasses on the bridge of his nose.
“I wanted to bring people from campus and the community together,” Wellman said. “Young and old, artists and activists together to learn about each other and have fun.”

Wellman said there really wasn’t a target audience for the event. Each were encouraged to contribute in any way they could.
“This is an opportunity for people to come out,” Wellman said. “I wanted to create an avenue for people to show themselves.”
The talent at the festival was varied. Seven acts made up the on-stage entertainment. Jables, the James Thomas Revolution, Martha, Big Al, Matt Kelley and Wellman himself (under the performance name Plaedo) all took the mic.
Big Al, a fiddle-playing Oakesdale, Wash. local, sang about the “biggest, baddest drug pushers on the planet:” prescription drug companies. Going after Pzifer, Lilly and Merck in a low Johnny Cash-like growl, Big Al kept the crowd interested with his tune “Pill Poppin’ Daddy.”

Greg “Crusty” Mack took the stage and introduced himself as “Joe Beer,” a presidential candidate with a platform steeped in Coors, Budweiser and Pabst Blue Ribbon.
“I’m buying the vote the old fashioned way,” Mack said. “Our campaign manager talked to every brewery — from PBR to microbrews — around the country. We want to have parties around the country with free beer.”
Mack said the best way to support his campaign is by drinking plenty of beer.

Performing art wasn’t the only medium of expression at the small, intimate festival. The vent felt like a ‘60s love-in with canvases spread next to the stage with paint supplied for “painting on the fly.”
“Dino,” a watercolor painter, had his brightly colored collection out for sale.
“When I go to Mexico, this is what their houses look like,” he said. “They hang lots of things on the walls.”
The artist said it took three months to create everything he had for sale that day: vividly colored pictures of foliage and house wares, all identical in shape and size.

“It’s about peace, love and understanding,” Wellman said. “I work tirelessly on this stuff; I just hope people have a good time. It’s cool to chill in
the park.”

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