Photo slideshows from the 2010 Festival are now available.  Click here to see them!

This event is made possible through the efforts of the all-volunteer Boulder Jewish Festival committee members who have been planning the 2010 event for over a year. A huge thank you from me to all of the committee – you’re the best! Another big thank you to our many event-day volunteers and to the community for coming together to make this a GREAT DAY!

As our friends at the IJN remarked, “Jews along the Front Range need go no further than Boulder this Sunday for their own feel-good day of celebrating Jewish life, Boulder-style of course.”

Explore, enjoy, engage! Be sure to pick up the free Festival program/”Connecting to Jewish Boulder” book at the event, the “yellow pages” of Jewish Boulder, and of course commemorative t-shirts are available for purchase and help support the event. Many thanks to our sponsors, our great team of volunteers who spend months preparing for the big day, and to our day of event volunteers!

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After a hiatus of several years, the “Bike to the Festival” rally is back! Gather at Congregation Bonai Shalom, 1527 Cherryvale Road, by 10:15. There’s parking available if you need to leave a vehicle there. The Bike Rally will travel the Boulder Creek Path down to the Festival, where Community Cycles will valet your bike while you’re enjoying the day. Help us lower the carbon footprint of the event by riding, not driving, down to Pearl Street!

The Carousel of Happiness, a dream of Nederland resident Scott Harrison, is set to open on Saturday. If you go, check out the “twirling girl” on the top – inspired by a photo taken of Eliana Dreyfus at the Boulder Jewish Festival in 1999.  That was only the 5th year of the Festival!  At that time, the entire event could be contained on just the Courthouse Lawn and the 1300 block of Pearl Street. Our t-shirt that year was designed by Dvora Kanegis. We didn’t even have a website yet! The photo of Eliana ran on the front page of the Daily Camera the next morning and was a thrill for us to see.

The photo above was last year’s update, from the Daily Camera: Eliana Dreyfus, holding a ground breaking shovel, looks at the photo taken of her 9-years ago. Eliana Dreyfus, the famous “twirling girl,” attended the ground breaking for the Carousel of Happiness in Nederland on July 26, 2008. The carving of Eliana, which will be at the top of the carousel, was inspired by a photograph taken of her in 1999 at the Boulder Jewish Festival.  Read the story about her visit in 2009 and see more photos here.

Do you have a favorite Festival story? Share it with us!

• 16th Street and Pearl Street (enter from 16th Street) – accessible if you are coming from 28th and Pearl or from Foothills Highway
• 14th and Walnut (bus depot – enter from Walnut)
• Spruce west of Broadway (enter from Spruce) – accessible of you are coming from south/west of town.

Street parking may be available. Meters and lots are free on Sunday in Boulder!

NEW! Ride your bike to the Boulder Jewish Festival and let the Community Cycles bike valet park it for you!

The online registration system for organizations and artists worked out great and registration is closed. Thanks and props to Doug who set it all up, to RegOnline because it’s way cool, and to all the organizations and artists who registered on time!

The May Planning Meeting for the 2010 Festival is on Monday night, May 3. Meetings are 6 to 8 pm and this one is at the Boulder JCC. We’ll have posters, flyers and other publicity material to be organized for local distribution.  If you would like to download your own, click here. We also have a few magnets left – if you haven’t gotten yours, stop by Monday night!

We are now recruiting volunteer for event-day help: We’re using Meetup.com to keep day of event volunteers in the know. Check it out here: Meetup group (that URL is http://meetup.com/boulder-jewish-festival-volunteers).  Boulder Jewish Festival is also on AllForGood.org and SnapImpact (for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad). Our day of event volunteers help with booth setup, banner hanging, staffing the information booth during the day, relief for other staff/vendors, greeting guests and handing out program books. If you can help with a 1 or 2 hour shift, please sign up on Meetup.com!

Remember, the Boulder Jewish Festival is Sunday, June 6, 2010! That’s just 5 weeks away – wow!