Woodstock Mela Preparation

This past weekend was the annual Woodstock Mela, which is also Homecoming Weekend. Our office is responsible for these events, which include the WOSA Tea welcoming this year’s graduates into WOSA membership. Today I’ll focus on the preparations for the Mela, with more about the weekend in the next few days.

When I arrived I was added to the Mela committee. Monica in our office is the main go-to person for all the events. This year she has been dealing with the illness of her husband and so more of the preparation fell to other members of the committee. Rachna very capably took over many of her duties, and I assisted her. For the first time the Mela was held on the grounds of the Hanifl Center for Outdoor Education and Environmental Study, about a 10-15 minute walk east on Tehri Road. This wonderful facility lent itself well to this year’s theme of a Rural Village.

The festivities began with the traditional Indian Music concert on Friday evening.

My main job was to map out the locations of the various booths and stalls and make the signs for all of them. The logo was a stylized foot as seen above.

Handicraft booths were set up inside the classrooms and on the grassy lawn just below the entrance. Café and ice cream booths were in the dining area. All the rest of the food booths encircled the large campground area above the buildings. On Friday afternoon tables were brought out and set up and the large hot dog booth was assembled.