FoolMoon and FestiFools celebrations set to return to downtown Ann Arbor

John Stockwell: "How did this all start?"

Mark Tucker: "Just an idea that started out as a 3 AM idea. 'What would happen if we took over Main Street USA with a whole bunch of giant puppets?' And then, I woke up the next morning and said, 'Yeah, could we do this?' And I was fortunate enough to be teaching art for non-art majors at the University of Michigan, and our program director said, 'Yeah, you should go for it!' And so, yeah, I've been teaching and doing this for the last almost 20 years."

"I had seen lots of incarnations of this. I spent some time in Germany first and then in Italy where they do Carnivale. And I was fortunate enough to work with some artists there who built these ginormous, five-story tall papier mâché puppets and floats."

"Fortunately, I teach students who come from all parts of the university, so they're non-art majors. So, they come already equipped with ideas and passions of their own. And we do have a theme every year, and this year, it's RevFOOLution. And so, we kind of just jump off of the theme and then try to find ways that that intersects with ideas they already have about themselves, the world, politics, humor."

Tucker: "Well, the most fun is to come across people who were coming to town for something else, and they didn't know that this was happening. And obviously, the first time we did it on the street everybody was in that category. But now we still see people who are like, 'What is this thing?' And 'Why is this?' You know?

Stockwell: "Why do you think something like this is so important, especially in the world we live in today? You know, just to have something fun you can go to?"

Tucker: "I think that's it. I mean, I think there's nothing behind this other than the creative process and taking that creative process out on the street and sharing it with people."

Tucker: "Basically a nighttime version of FestiFools, except that it's primarily community built. And so, people have been coming to our workshops all month long to create these luminous wire and tissue paper sculptures. We call them luminaries.

Stockwell: "What is a luminary? How is that different than what happens at FestiFools?"

Tucker: Yeah, well, FestiFools are papier mâché puppets that are really very large. Hard to make in your own living room. But FoolMoon, you can make anywhere. These little luminary sculptures, they're tissue paper wrapped around little wire frames. And we have YouTube tutorials that tell you how to do this. They're quite simple really. But the majesty of the event is when hundreds of these come together, the night of FoolMoon. And what people do is they gather at three different places in downtown Ann Arbor, either the front lawn of the Museum of Art, Slauson Middle School Parking Lot or Kerrytown. We all step off promptly at 8 PM, and then we converge onto downtown."

"I've heard from community members that this is just something really fun and exciting and like the beginning of spring that they look forward to each year."

Stockwell: "What are you working on? What is your puppet going to be?"

Lauren: "So, it's over there, and it's a giant fig basically, and I'm also making a fig wasp with it. So, there's, do you know about the fig wasp?

Stockwell: "I got a feeling you're going to tell me. This is going to be good."

Lauren: Yeah, okay. So, basically, how figs get pollinated is there are wasps called fig wasps that go into the fig and lay their eggs there, and they just die in there when the figs get made. And not many people know about that, right? So, I just thought that was really symbolic."

Raven: "I want to feed into, like, the sexual fantasy, and, like, I chose a cartoon called SpongeBob. And like the character is Patrick, and it's a big stripper, but I added like more to it, like boobs, the legs, booty, hair. And when it's finished, it's going to be like a big fun project that is like it's not serious. It's just for like to lighten the mood.

Stockwell: "Do you ever have to explain to your friends where you're going? I'm going to work on my puppet. Do they ever have questions, like 'What are you talking about?'"

Raven: "Yeah, sometimes, because most of my friends are like chem majors or like on a pre-med track, so they're so serious, and, like, I'm just like random, random, wild stuff."

'This is a UFO. And then, over here, I have an alien head that's going to like pop out. I was trying to think of something that would be like fun to interact with the crowd with and also just be fun to build in general. So, like, a more simple shape, like a UFO is just like two saucers and a dome, and I just thought it would be really fun to do."

"FullMoon and Festifools are, you know, celebrations. They're celebrations of community and wildness and togetherness. They take place in our wonderful downtown, have a meal, stop into a shop and enjoy some of the great things that Ann Arbor has to offer."

"I tend to show up at FestiFools with a doppelganger, so I'll be walking around with someone who looks a lot like the mayor. So, I tend to introduce the larger mayor, particularly to children, and they get a real kick out of it."

"Both FestFools and FoolMoon, they're really awesome signature events for the Ann Arbor area. They celebrate the creativity, the community and all the public art. And what's neat is that FoolMoon is happening on a Friday night. And then with FestiFools happening on a Sunday afternoon, visitors have the perfect opportunity to really spend a weekend in Ann Arbor and make the most of their time by visiting restaurants and shopping and dining and enjoying the great attractions that are here."

"Festivals attract thousands of attendees, and some of them are also out-of-town visitors, so not only does that contribute to Ann Arbor's thriving tourism economy but they're also, the visitors are here, they're also shopping and dining and experiencing just all the wonderful attractions. So, because both events happen over the weekend, a lot of people are coming here to spend the weekend here."

Ashley Schaefer: "So, anytime that we can get people downtown just to experience the magic of being in the city is, really, a positive one. And so, we're really excited not only to have this event but such a unique event that offers, you know, a wide array of activities for the public."

Stockwell: "And what is your response to when people say this event is so typically Ann Arbor? Why is that such a great thing?"

Schaefer: "I think Ann Arbor is very unique, they're very quirky and we believe in the arts not only for the youth but for adults as well. And so, this event really hits the mark all the way across the board."

Stockwell: "What happens after the festival? Do they get destroyed or saved or where do they go?"

Tucker: "Well, we're in the FestiFools—"

Stockwell: "Do they go to a farm?"

Tucker: "Right, yeah. They go to a puppet farm. You know, we save some of them, but over time, we've made so many of them now that we can't save them all. Some people take parts of them with them as, you know, kind of token remembrances, but I like to think of them as, you know, living on in people's memories, as opposed to needing to necessarily see them again and again out on the streets."