Walnut Valley Festival, Winfield, Kansas
September 12—16, 2012
Vexillology Lesson Available at Walnut Valley Festival
Winfield, Kansas…Vexillology, is according to Wikipedia, the scholarly study of flags. Bright colors have become a common welcome to travelers upon their arrival to the Winfield Fairgrounds during the Walnut Valley Festival. Those bright colors are in the form of flags, organization flags, state flags and various country flags. A total of 98 different flags to be precise, and if you count duplications of the United States and the Walnut Valley Association flags there are 100 even. New to the lineup of flags this year are Malaysia, Myanmar, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. So why these four countries' flags? True, none of the four is known worldwide for their contributions to bluegrass or even acoustic music. However, a citizen from each of these countries has made his or her way to the sunflower state to attend the Walnut Valley Festival. You see, that’s how each of the flags flown over the fairgrounds has earned its place in line.
Go back in time fifteen years to 1996. That was the year that Bob Flottman first brought the idea for the Avenue of Flags as it is now known to Bob Redford. It was Flottman’s idea as a way to physically show just how much reach the Walnut Valley Festival has had throughout its near four decades in existence. The rules are simple; someone who is an official resident of the state or country has to have attended the Festival, either as a performing artist, contestant or a fan. The first year, 1997 there were only seven flags flown but people took notice and started to contribute flags from their home states and purchases were made to fill in the missing state, territories and countries. By 2001 all of the 50 states had been acquired as well as numerous foreign countries.
The flags have been accumulated in a number of ways. Some have come from fans that brought one from home to make sure their state was represented, others were received from the individual state’s department of tourism and a large number have been purchased from FlagsUSA, a company based in Bartlett, Illinois. A representative from FlagsUSA has stated that they have provided more flags for the Walnut Valley Festival than any other customer they make and sell flags for.
Each year since 1997 Bob Flottman and his wife have gone out to the fairgrounds just prior to the Festival and prepared the location for the flag poles to be lined up to greet travelers
as they arrive for the Festival. In recent years their granddaughters, Sheridon and Sierra Flottman of Winfield and Delbert Peters from Arkansas City, Kansas have helped clean and locate
the holes for the flag poles. Flottman takes a great deal of pride in his colorful contribution to the Walnut Valley Festival and enjoys visiting with anyone that wants to add a flag to
the impressive collection.
Flags that are flying at the 2011 Festival
at hq@wvfest.com for festival info| jump to the top of this page | Walnut Valley Festival Post Office Box 245, 918 Main Winfield, Kansas 67156 (620) 221-3250 |
WV office hours are: Monday — Friday 9 am — Noon; 1 — 5 pm Central time |