a weekend full of fabulous hons in bawlmer!

hons on the avenue, honfest 2009.
honfest 2009 was amazing! once again i was the official honfest photographer for the 2-day festival in hampden. i feel very lucky to work with honfest (yay for cafe hon owner + honfest creator denise whiting, and amazing event coordinators kate callahan and lisa davis for another great year!) the 16th annual honfest was a weekend long celebration – two very long, very hot days of music, dancing, food, crazy cool vendors, and hons like nobody’s business took over the avenue in hampden! the main stage gave new meaning to the word entertainment with three hon competitions – little miss hon, miss honette, and the main event, baltimore’s best hon! musical talent like dj landis expandis, the groove mammals, and uptown hons performed, along with amazing dance troupes and the sultan’s treasure belly dancers! local bands lined the falls road stage all weekend long, including the cold, cold, heartbreakers with rodney henry, lawnchair, the bobwhites, pete yorko and others.
huge thanks to the blonde creative team, especially my amazing mamasita who once again ran my booth all weekend while i was shooting – she is amazing! she also woke up super early with me both days to set up and stayed late to take down everything! plus she took some amazing photos in the photo booth and is simply so fun to have around! major props go to quinn peyser at quinnep doodles for some serious logistics work this year! she was in charge of ordering all the amazing honfest tshirts, stickers, and water bottles in our booth, as well as doodling the 6ft-tall life-size hon for the photo booth! woohoo! i was also thrilled to have jessi ringer of 5ringsphoto there both days shooting + hanging out with me, and the fabulous + talented mk mckenna and natalie franke stopped by saturday as well! the brand new canton car wash gave us awesome coupons + gift cards to give away and we had two big raffles!
enjoy the blog and check out the galleries below for all the photos from the weekend, including the crazy photo booth pics taken by me, mamasita + quinnep!
* * * * *
click HERE for the PHOTO BOOTH GALLERY
click HERE for the FESTIVAL GALLERY

1st place winner in the “what is a hon?” art contest, “Hon” by local artist holly petr.

artists holly petr + ramon matheu.



blonde photo balloons!

jessi ringer channels her inner elvis.

hey hon!

the illustrious cafe hon pink flamingo!


quinn peyser loving her life-size doodle!


denise whiting cracks up on stage.

little miss hon 2009!

bubble gum + heineken hon!

me + charlene osborne (baltimore’s best hon 2009!) in the photo booth!

holly + jessica (left) stopped by!

hontastic mother-daughter duo heidi + rita!!



men wearing beehives used their cameras against me in the photo booth!

this humongous crabcake broke the guinness world record on saturday!

miss hypothermic hon scoops the first crab cake!

cafe hon owner denise whiting raised over $2000 for charity in the dunk tank!



the cold, cold heartbreakers rocked the falls road stage.


oh mai!


dogs with beehives: only in bawlmer, hon.

snake charming blonde photogs + belly dancers.

the booth!

mamasita + quinn workin’ it!

clockwise from top, starting with queen hon: mk mckenna, jessi ringer, me, quinn peyser, natalie franke.