Caspar, 11 October 1998
     The First Annual Caspar Gorse Festival reached its high point Sunday evening when Meridian Green launched her new CD, which she dedicated to the Centennial Gorse Festival. Green explained that her work symbolized Caspar's determination to preserve its unique values for at least the next hundred years.
     The Gorse Festival began with an art opening featuring the works of Caspar artists Sunshine Taylor, Doug Desmond, Jo Ann Stephens, John Thurston, Nancy Barth, Tom Brown, David Alden, Naida Schorg, Terra, Jim Maxwell, Hope Stevenson, Hunter, Bob Ross, Gregor Macinnis, Joe Curren, and the UC Design Team and the Fern Creek String Quartet under the direction of Joselyn Bartlett. Saturday morning, more than thirty residents and visitors made the adventurous inaugural walk along the proposed Caspar Coastal trail from Jughandle to Point Cabrillo.
     The Gorse Music Festival, under the direction of Meridian Green, began on Saturday afternoon with music from around the world played by Caspar musicians Mickey Zekley and Elizabeth Clark playing as MicBeth, Holly Tannen, Antonia Lamb, and Tour de France: Debra Dawson, Vicky Yancy, Arrigo d'Albert, Sean Folsom, and Jean-Paul. There was folk dancing and a presentation of African Dance by Annie Lee and her troupe. Saturday evening, more Caspar musicians, including Gene Parsons, Meridian Green, Bill Botrell, Lily Parsons, Mike Ward, Phil Dunn, and Richard Feinbop rocked the Caspar Inn. The Music Festival's headline event, the launch of Meridian Green's CD "In the Heart of This Town", dedicated to the Centennial Gorse Festival, played to a receptive and emotional standing-room-only audience Sunday evening at William's Place, Bill Botrell's newly refurbished recording studio in downtown Caspar. Community spokesperson Vince Taylor summed up the evening by saying "While we struggle to think about the details and obstacles, it takes a poet like Meridian to envision preserving our Caspar for a hundred years and more."
     More than 400 people participated in the Gorse Festival, and more than $4,000 was raised for the Caspar Community's effort to preserve their village's qualities of life. According to Gorse Festival organizer Michael Potts, "We are very grateful to our community's many talented people who gave so generously to Caspar this weekend. We look forward to celebrating gorse again next year." Information about the Caspar Community can be found at the Caspar website, http://www.mcn.org/1/caspar/ .